Godspeed

Reviewer: Jonathan Poritsky
Rating (out of 5): **

In my own adventures in movie viewing, I’ve learned that the more impressive the opening or closing credits (swooshes and swipes, 3D rejiggering and whatnot) in a low-budget film, the worse the film is. It’s not an exact science, but I am yet to find an exception to this rule. Godspeed, a new independent thriller from Robert Saitzyk, has absolutely amazing closing credits.

But the trouble starts pretty early on when the film opens in a flash forward, then goes to an extended flash back. The narrative doesn’t really pick up pace until twenty some minutes in, when Charlie Shepard (Joseph McKelheer), a retired spiritual healer, meets Sarah Roberts (Courtney Halverson), a girl whose mother Charlie was unable to save years earlier. She throws herself at him in hopes he will come to try to heal her father, who has not gotten over the loss of his wife.

In his healing heyday, Charlie would spend his days giving false hope to his ailing constituents (they’re sheep, get it?) and his nights stepping out on his wife and son to visit the local prostitute. In this small Alaskan town, even the cops visit the same whore as the false prophets. After a nice roll in the hay, on a night of the gloriously rendered Aurora Borealis (a big congrats to VFX artists David Lebensfeld, Matthew Poliquin and Nicholas Sorenson for getting this to look so good), Charlie’s family is murdered by some cultish nuts who, as we will soon learn, have a connection with Sarah Roberts.

Godspeed is basically a short that has been stretched to fill feature length. The biggest problem with the film is the narrative structure. The entire first act turns out to be character back story, and the conflict we are sold for most of the film, Charlie’s struggle to heal his wife and son, his mistress and himself, is hazy at best. Finally, as many thrillers are wont to do, Charlie turns to physical redemption to free himself of his inner conflict. The problem is that it is never clear what this actually solves, and instead of an enjoyable denouement we get the introduction of a new kind of conflict. Structurally, it’s all over the place.

All this isn’t to say that there isn’t anything to love in Godspeed. Joseph McKelheer offers up a really nice performance as Charlie, showcasing his dramatic skills through an overwrought character. Like I mentioned before, the special effects look phenomenal in this low-budget picture. Not only the Aurora, but the starry Alaskan nights are reminiscent of the golden age of Hollywood matte painting. Nicely photographed by Michael Hardwick, the film can’t be accused of looking bad, but I will say I didn’t always understand whose perspective the camera was representing, a motivation that often comes more from director than from DP.

Robert Saitzyk directed the film and wrote it with actor Cory Knauf (story by Joseph McKelheer), and ultimately it film seems to suffer from too much of the story the director wanted and not enough on what he had. Godspeed is an example of excess where the thriller genre often needs more restraint. He is obviously is a talented director capable of bring creative people together to create something beautiful, but he will do better much better by his work if he follows William Faulkner’s supposed advice: "kill your darlings."