Tribeca Film Festival: See for Me Review

Tribeca Film Festival – World Premiere

93 mins | Canada | 2021
Director: Randall Okita
Language: English
Cast: Skyler Davenport, Kim Coates, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Bentley the Cat, Pascal Langdale, Joe Pingue, George Tchortov, Laura Vandervoort
Editor: James Vandewater
Cinematographers: Jordan Oram, Jackson Parrell
Composers: Joseph Murray, Lodewijk Vos
Producers: Matt Code, Kristy Neville
Writers: Adam Yorke, Tommy Gushue

Sophie (Skyler Davenport) has a proclivity for disaster. She became blind during a skiing accident and locked herself out while housesitting. Obviously, the house she is watching is going to be robbed.

Natalie Brown plays “Sophie’s Mom” and is mom-worried about her daughter. She’s really one of the greatest actors in the film. I thought she’d be more utilized, but it seems as if the writers mostly forgot about her existence after she checked on Sophie once.

The main problem is the lack of tension in the setup. It’s a thriller. Per the home-invasion premise, we’re trying to figure out how and when the “bad guys” will arrive on the scene. Sophie has her personal foibles that prevent her from being a completely likable character. She uses her accident and having to take the “bullshit job” as an excuse for acting out. Also, when she engages with the “bad guys”, I found myself not really caring what was going to happen to her because of how she compromised her professionalism. However, as the movie progresses, Sophie really makes a couple of bad-ass moves; her former athleticism shows she is capable of the physical demands that will be required in kicking these guys to the floor.

There are other weak points and unresolved storylines that are huge. There are also obvious things that Sophie doesn’t think about like she tries to change her story when other witnesses are around to prove that she is lying.

I really enjoyed Jessica Parker Kennedy’s performance as Kelly, the operator on the See For Me app who tries to help Sophie. Of course there will be hiccups and technical difficulties along the way. A movie should really have those, of course.

Another slight annoyance is that some things seemed too convenient: the alarm is right by Sophie when she needs to program it without keeping her boss waiting and sometimes she just happens to be able to sense where a bad guy is even without seeing.

All in all, it was a beautifully shot movie with a rather shaky execution. The filmmakers did run into problems when COVID struck. Most of the actors carried the movie and most everything made sense. I suppose the film can be forgiven for not wrapping everything up.

I would have preferred to see a scene toward the end where Sophie is paid by Debra (Laura Vandervoort) and they have to discuss what happened. Instead, there is no scene and Sophie implies that she is not compensated as much as she could have been. Debra being cheap toward Sophie reminds me of how Kylie Jenner had her makeup artist who was in a car accident start a GoFundMe instead of paying for his bills. This film is Canadian, so any medical expenses would be covered. However, if you hire someone and their life is put on the line and you have the money, PAY UP!! I suppose the subtext of this movie could be: eat the rich.

Vegan alert:
Deerskin rug

Vegan points:
Bentley the Cat given proper credit

Article was written by Allison McCulloch, follow her Twitter.