Review: ‘Acts of Desperation’ cuts to root of human pain

When pushed to the brink of sanity, human beings will do almost anything. Our coping mechanisms shatter into a million tiny shards, and in hopeless attempts to glue them all back together again, we only slip further into the fiery pit of despair. So goes Richard Friedman’s new dark comedy Acts of Desperation, a thriller piece that deals with heightened reality while excavating issues of mental health, misery, PTSD and deadly price-paying.

Jason Gedrick (Backdraft) plants himself at the center of various storyline threads, the maddening impetus for much of the film’s tragedy. Beleaguered cop Grillo’s mental capacity quickly disintegrates after a near-death experience, and when confronted with his wife Sadie’s (played by Erin O’Brien) salacious infidelities, his temper sends him careening down a path of revenge and destruction from which he’ll never recover. Throughout the runtime, various temper- and PTSD-triggered incidents cause Chief Lassiter (the legendary Paul Sorvino, known for his work in Goodfellas and Nixon) to gravely reevaluate Grillo’s position at the precinct, a decision that frays the story even more.

In a surprisingly rich subplot, Kira Reed Lorsch (The Bay) gives an emotionally-wrought performance as the troubled, hard-to-define Morgan, whose vital role in both pieces of the puzzle is soon realized to thrilling, gasp-worthy effect. Her introduction as a suicidal victim of circumstance drags Treva Etienne’s (Pirates of the Caribbean, Black Hawk Down) Glenn into a web of delightful mayhem. When he discovers Morgan teetering on the edge of a highway overpass to end her life, Glenn ⏤ a bank robber by trade, and a charmingly clever one at that ⏤ wills her back from the ledge, and the two soon become entangled in more ways than one.

The theme of fate becomes an unexpected underpinning to the nearly-two-hour feature, and even the viewer may begin to question their own realities. Such a structure is heightened with the adorable, comedic genius of Vince Lozano (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl) as Floyd (or Mister X) and Chris Coppola (Beowulf, Postal) as Stu (or Crow), whose involvement in the overarching narrative is initially detached but they soon can’t escape the greater fabric of cosmic fortunes. The dynamic duo offer a bit of necessary levity to the grueling nature of the film, which only tightens until the brutally shocking final act, punctuated by an encounter that hammers home consequences of destiny, if we have any control at all in our lives and an imposing, uncertain future.

Acts of Desperation is out now on VOD, courtesy of Gravitas Ventures.

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