One of the best parts about indie movies in general is that they are made purely out of the love of filmmaking. There are no restrictions on creativity. So, audiences are not given the typical three act structure where it is simply a hero’s journey. Instead, we get creative projects like Mouse where the characters start out in a lot of gray areas. For half the film, it is all about small crime. The main character, Denny, steals bikes from people and is not the best employee. He is a lonely man who befriends a new pen pal, Tess (played by Sarah Coffey). Both characters are wonderfully well written and bring great performances and chemistry to their respective characters.
“Small crime” is sort of what the first half of this movie is referred to as within the movie. Denny scams people and steals from them. While Tess’s boyfriend gets in too deep with loan sharks. So, she tries to make friends with Denny and other men she believes to be wealthy with hopes that they can scam them out of enough money to fend off those she and her boyfriend are indebted to.
This movie may not be on many people’s radar. But it definitely should be watched. This is one of the most thrilling movies so far of the year. While the year comes to a wrap, this movie will probably go down as a cult classic. It has all the writing with twists and turns that make sense. And people will really empathize with Tess and Denny. Both start off as small crime criminals. They end up making choices that perhaps some of us would think better than to do. But when put in difficult situations, complicated people may choose the worst over what is simply the truth. Denny, for instance, cannot let anyone in on who he really is. He feels like a friendless loser with nobody but his mother. For some reason, he cannot let the truth have its day. He must project a feeling of false success to the world around him. Tess, on perhaps an even more empathetic note, seems like she was just a victim of surrounding herself with the wrong people. She did not meet her boyfriend out clubbing one night. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
There are enough nuggets of detail to give the audience something to gossip about after the film. Given the way this movie ends, which will not be spoiled, it seems as though we could all discuss for days who is truly at fault for what. A lot of this movie is pinned on knee-jerk reactions. These characters are not inherently evil. The main characters of this movie have just made bad choices and put their own interests ahead of others’. There is something very human and real about this film that makes it such a splendid piece of cinema. That is not to say it is the best movie of the year. But, unlike bigger budget movies, I do not think there were choices made that could have hit in a better manner had it been changed. Actors/creatives in general like Kenny Riches deserve all the praise they can get. This movie was not made with the thought in mind about how many billion dollars it can make. It was made to make the audience aware that we all may have monsters in our closet. We can never be too careful with whom we trust.
Some of the camera work and editing with voice over really impressed me. It was quite neat how they covered the exchanges of text between Tess and Denny. It was like no time passed at all, yet we still hear and see them texting back and forth. Creatively, it would be tough to find many flaws that this film had. This film certainly felt like a piece of art that is meant to be sustained over time and discovered by audiences who enjoy a good indie.
5 out of 5 stars.
Mouse is ultimately about what we ourselves would do if we felt desperate and lonely enough. If Denny had perhaps had better luck in life, maybe he would have never needed the rise that stealing bikes gave him. And, in turn, he would have never crossed paths with Tess. By the end of the film, we can all agree that it would have been best had none of these characters ever cross paths.
I give this film 5 stars out of 5. This is the first time that I have given a perfect 5, but credit where credit is due. This was such a great character driven piece that dives deeply into the sophisticated human psyche.
