Two things are simultaneously going on with Rory Karpf’s “Grace Point.” One – you are offered to follow around a young guy named Brandon (John Owen Lowe), who, despite his unengaging screen presence, plays a troubled youth who you would want to do better. And two – a cyclic roundabout about him trying to run away from the demons of long-suppressed trauma and the fallacy of addiction. While these coinciding things offer us a pretty neat thriller that can double down as an allegory for addiction, Karpf’s inability to gracefully follow them up with something more concrete to take home and inserting a problematic twist makes things questionable.
The opening act is solid enough though. After an anxiety-inducing prologue, we see Brandon being driven across the country to a remote rehab center by his father Winston (Andrew McCarthy). Brandon is addicted to dope and despite knowing where he is being taken – topping off with the restrictions his father has put him on – he chooses to get high the first chance he gets. We are made aware of the fact that he lost his mother pretty early in his life but as a character, we don’t see the depths of the despair he has been through. John Wen Lowe is unable to give this one-note character any kind of gravitas because his performance is pretty substandard.
We follow Brandon through many ups and downs after a mishap at their first stop – a highway-side gas station, followed by a shootout that thrusts Brandon to run for his life. However, the repetitive nature of this cat-and-mouse game never achieves the suspense and thrill the first act was able to conjure up. This makes “Grace Point” a run-of-the-mill thriller that only works as an allegory for addiction.
Karpf introduces some interesting characters into the mix though. Sean Carrigan plays Luther, the head honcho of the group that is trying to catch Brandon. He is like this enigmatic figure whose intentions somehow keep things going but the writing never allows him to feel or sound menacing enough. There’s also, Sophie (Harlan Drum), the gas station receptionist who is introduced only to allow Brandon to become more human. Then there is Cutter (Jim Parrack), an ex-army, official who is living in the wilderness with severe PTSD before he decides to help Brandon out because he can feel his need to get out of his self-made hell.
Apart from Cutter, none of these characters remain memorable. The reason can also be attributed to the twist that director Karpf offers during the final act. While it felt pretty predictable to me, it might make or break the film for viewers who are not paying attention. Personally speaking, while the twist does work, I am not too sure it would sit right with people who do pay attention as it sort of refigures the film’s themes of addiction. The change in the narrative, especially if you are an addict yourself, might feel problematic as it *spoiler alert* reduces the efforts of rehabilitation to a mere gimmick.
That said, I liked how the film knows that even the most frowned upon addicts have this one shred of hope inside them that can keep them fighting to survive. Like Brandon, whose live-and-die situation makes him want to fight for himself, the allegory of this thriller may turn heads into its folds. Props should also go out to the locations scouts who were able to find this place that could turn into “Grace Point.”
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