"How to watch two movies in one"

Titles: Territories
Year: 2010
Genre: History, Horror
Director: Olivier Abbou
Writer: Olivier Abbou, Thibault Lang Willar
Runtime: 91min
Cast: Roc LaFortune, Sean Devine, Nicole Leroux, Cristina Rosato, Michael Mando, Alex Weiner, Tim Rozon, Stephen Shellen.
Produc.: Capture The Flag Films, Les Films Esplanade, Les Films du Territoire, Noodles Production
Budget: $CAD 3 million approx.

Territories is about a group of friends who, after attending a wedding in Canada are returning to the United States, crossing the border, when they are stopped by an unusual police. In theory this man, along with his shift partner, only wants to see their passports. Except that things end up taking another direction.

With the development of this film, Olivier Abbou succeeds in making two things that contradict each other. On the one hand he shows us his presentation card, very neatly directing the entire first half, where we have a well acted and scripted movie, and with a lot of tension, something enjoyable to watch.

Then, in the final stretch, he unfortunately contradicts all that impressive performance, showing instead how to destroy a movie until it bleeds. Then, this leads to a big question: How is it possible to make a film, where a part is functional and engaging, and the other a total loses of all meaning? Here is the answer.

With Khalil (Michael Drive) at the wheel, our group of partygoers is traveling on the road in the wee hours and about to cross the border, when the headlights of a patrol vehicle reveals the presence of a uniformed man with a flashlight. Subsequently, Jalil properly stops his car responsibly to go through the routine checkup. This is how a bald, short-statured and trimmed black beard man comes to his window and asks him for his passport. Khalil explains that he does not carry it with him and that he´s got it in the bag, and that, the officer does not like. Somewhat disgruntled, the guy allows Jalil to exit the car but, funny detail, not before insisting him to do it carefully and with both his hands up. Jalil follows with the order, yet his passport has not been more than excuse so that, shortly after, he and his friends are wrongly accused of failing to respect the authority, possession of narcotics, and if this were not enough, to present a threat to national security, according to the policeman´s judgment. All these incrimination works as a trigger, for this disturbed servant of the law to enjoy practicing with them all kinds of atrocities.

Tension has increased in Territories within moments, and kept pretty well for about forty-some minutes, when the boys have passed through caging and interrogation. However, Mr. Olivier Abbou had the unjustified idea to completely change the point of view, from the victims suffering to the quiet detective (Stephen Shellen) handling the case. With him the film becomes slow, boring, and unclearly away from the characters that really matter, as if the director had chosen to change to another movie, but within the same film footage, and also somewhat paying homage to Hitchcock´s classic Psycho, by including the death of the detective, when he sinks with his car in the river. Abbou also inserts a couple of shots where we see the detective dreaming about a little girl while relaxing in a motel, which also contributes absolutely nothing to the film, which has fallen almost into a narrative emptiness.

My rating: 3/10

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