Release Date: April 11, 2015 (Limited and VOD)
Director: Christopher Presswell
MPAA Rating: NR
Run Time: 83 Min.
Christopher Presswell’s second feature, Candlestick, is a loving homage to Alfred Hitchcock in nearly every aspect – the score, the dialogue, the plot, and even the opening titles – but it acts more like a reimagining of Hitchcock’s Rope than something that can stand on its own merits. Still, it’s just devious and twisty enough to be a fairly entertaining watch.
Like Rope, Candlestick takes place in one location, a posh flat in London, over the course of one evening, where the central characters are attending a dinner party. Andrew Fitch plays Jack, the diabolical host of the party, who – in addition to being a generally creepy dick – is also executing what he believes to be the perfect crime, unbeknownst to the rest of his guests: his best friend, Frank (Nigel Thomas); Frank’s wife, Vera (Isla Ure), who Jack is sleeping with; and Jack’s uncle, Major (Tom Knight).
With its limited cast list and location and in the manner in which dialogue is delivered, Candlestick feels more like a stage play than an actual cinematic movie, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing when executed properly, and fortunately it works in this film. Given this is a throwback to Hitchcock, director Presswell has the actors deliver their lines in a more classical way, sounding like play acting, rather than more natural, modern film acting.
This can be jarring at first, and during the beginning minutes of the film, I was trying to figure out if the acting was poor or if this was just how the actors were instructed to emote. After growing used to the style, I decided it was the latter, and it didn’t prove to be much of a detriment for the rest of the movie. There was additionally some spotty sound mixing in the first act that made aspects of the dialogue seem a bit off, but again, it became less noticeable as the film progressed.
Although Jack’s plan to execute the perfect crime – thereby one-upping his uncle, an amateur sleuth who always wins at game night – was well thought out, the way in which things conclude make him seem like a complete imbecile. How can you plot such an intricate series of events but do something so foolish afterward? This also raises the question of Jack’s motivation. He says that he wanted to commit the perfect crime, again the same plot as Hitchock’s Rope, and pull one over on his uncle who has been outsmarting him for years, but it seems like Jack is the type of person who would love rubbing it in his face – something he certainly couldn’t do if he truly got away with it.
Visually, Candlestick makes the most of its limited surroundings and looks okay overall, but the digital look doesn’t fit with the Hitchcockian aesthetic that every other aspect of the film is so carefully mimicking. If it were presented in black and white, this film might have looked more authentic, but Haider Zafar’s cinematography still works.
Candlestick is an entertaining little thriller that succeeds at capturing that Hitchcock vibe and proves once again that in cinema you don’t need giant ensemble casts, a massive budget and 50 locations to deliver a good story.
