Klepto

Meredith Bishop has an incredible natural presence on the screen. Very cool movie.

After having seen two really miserable crummy indie films back to back, I was really surprised by how good Klepto is. Thomas Trail co-wrote, directed, and edited the film and has done a great job. The editing is very crisp. He gets solid performances from all his actors, and the writing is overall very strong. Sure, there are formulaic elements here--guy gets in way too deep owing a crime boss a whole pile of money, for example (the most obvious formula issue)--but this can be forgiven because of all the other strong elements of the movie. The premise is original--a girl in her 20s is a kleptomaniac and meets a security guy of about the same age who, rather than punishing her when he catches her stealing stuff in the store where he works, hooks up with her for more than one reason. The girl's mother, played well by Leigh Taylor-Young, lends just the right element of emotional superficiality to the proceedings to add another interesting part of the story. Overall surprisingly very good and recommended.

This is exactly the type of movie I find interesting... underground, possibly under-budget, but real. Most mainstream movies are terrible now, and if you look to the independent movies like this, you will find something many movies lack. It goes deep, maybe, without meaning to... and it has a storyline that has been done with the drug thing, but the whole Klepto counter-part makes it really fresh with the concept and inner-ties... I must admit I only downloaded this for Meredith Bishop (Annie Mack) and yes this is the hottest I have ever seen her even with the toga commercials, but I bought it and will appreciate the real copy because the movie is fantastic!

I have no idea why this movie has more than 2 stars. I found it to be dreadful. The acting was terrible and the story was worse. I kept waiting for it to get good, placing too much faith in the ratings of others, but it only got worse. The tag line states that this movie is a comedy, but there isn't a shred of humor in the entire film. I repeat, THIS IS __NOT__ A COMEDY. At the end of the film my only thought was regret that I'll never get those 90 minutes back.

Wow, looking at the other reviews of KLEPTO, I'm really the odd man out on this one. I thought the film really belonged in the "after school message" genre than anything else. However, even as a message film the movie strikes out because its' conclusions seem to reward bad behavior in the case of the mother-daughter; the guy gets royally penalized, but then his behavior innolved manipulation & physical violence. KLEPTO immediately reminded me of Aronofsky's REQUIEM FOR A DREAM. It too is a chonicle of parent-child addiction & the wages of selling drugs. That's about where the similarity ends. REQUIEM's got Ellen Burstyn, a decent supporting cast, a pretty good script--and a good director. KLEPTO rises--and ultimately falls--on a scenario of highly questionable psychobabel. It seems to promote the idea that white, middle class-- and female-- shoplifters are somehow morally challenged--and thus should be seen as victims rather than perps. The girl succeeds because she turns her boyfriend's criminal plans to her own advantage. What really fell flat was the idea that the sort of kooky mother, who owed over $100,000 in credit card debt, was also a victim--of who, the credit card company? The boyfriend was a rat, true, but the women's behavior wasn't exactly saintly either. The whole concept of the film seems shallow & pointless.

A self-assured debut film from director and co-writer Thomas Trail, Klepto tells the story of Emily, an obsessive-compulsive young woman who shoplifts to escape the drudgery of her temp job, only to become involved with Nick, a department store's head of security, whose criminal past has caught up to him, forcing him to enlist a reluctant Emily in his plan to rob the store where he works. A deft blend of substance and style, the briskly-paced, consistently engaging dramatic thriller/character study boasts strong, nuanced, sympathetic performances from leads Meredith Bishop (Emily) and Jsu Garcia (Nick), as well as memorable turns from supporting players Leigh Taylor-Young, as Emily's shopaholic mother, Henry Czerny as the oddly-affable, ultimately sinister drug kingpin Ivan, and Michael Nouri as Emily's serene shrink. Director Trail proves equally adept at staging and shooting his scenes as he does eliciting compelling performances from his actors; the shots are artfully composed and Trail's judicious use of camera movement enhances the narrative drama, particularly in the film's climactic sequence, told mostly via one long, audacious Steadicam shot (that owes as much to Trail's staging as to Bishop's acting). Klepto's thriller trappings -- theft, drugs, criminals -- belie its complexity; themes of absent parents, mental illness, family dysfunction, surveillance, and consumerism, combine with Trail's well-drawn characters, snappy dialogue, unexpected plot twists, and assured, energetic direction to make a fresh, often funny, and consistently entertaining debut film.