directed by:
Ray Nomoto Robison written by: Ray Nomoto Robison genre: Drama |
You know…if one were to judge a movie by its cover (it’s okay to do that, they’re not books), you’d have to assume that Evamay (Priscilla Quinby) is some kind of Action film badass like Liam Neeson is. Holding a gun, staring straight down the barrel of the camera…I mean…she seems all kinds of serious, right?
Rather than possessing the very particular set of skills required for revenge that Neeson had thought, in “The Eve Of May,” we’re on a much more pleasant ride towards nostalgia instead. Turns out that May hasn’t been back to her hometown for fifty years or so, and she’s enlisted her granddaughter to take a road trip with her to stop the streak of time she’s been away. The quick math would make you raise an eyebrow or two, so don’t do it – May’s granddaughter Stephanie (Stephanie C. Jones) is fully grown and likely mid-30s…Evamay herself is purportedly 73… that leaves a mom in the middle somewhere who would have likely been having a kid at a fairly early age. Not an unheard of early age…it’s still more than possible, but yeah…you get the point – “The Eve Of May” is a story created by adults, with adults, and for adults overall - and it’s got some fun to it. It’s billed as a Drama, but writer/director Ray Nomoto Robison has elected to keep this light viewing for the most part. Quinby proves to be a spark early on in the film, and May seems to be the kind of character that we want to root for. Stephanie is kind of a Debbie Downer when we’re first getting to know her, but she’s also got the role of playing the straight-woman to her grandmother’s more aloof & dreamy ambitions. I’m not going to tell you that the acting is the most natural I’ve ever seen, because it’s not; it’s all a bit on the stiff side if I’m being honest with you, but that doesn’t mean you won’t still find someone like May endearing to watch. I think that the main concern early on is that “The Eve Of May” might be almost too accurate, you know what I mean? Like, I have a ton of respect for the generations that have come before me, but I’m still well aware of how much excitement you’re not going to be in-store for when travelling with your grandparents. I happen to personally enjoy talking with my elders, and I think there’s so very much we can learn from them – but I don’t necessarily think that equates to me wanting to jump in a car for a road trip that’ll last for hours either…so there’s definitely an element of this storyline that might make people restless. Where “The Eve Of May” makes its biggest connection is within the core message and intentions of this film, perhaps even more so than anything you’ll actually see or experience. I think we can all identify with the concept of a person who’s begun to realize they’re on the way out, yet wants to take one more crack at the bat to see what else they can do before their time is up. Like I was saying earlier on, it’s real easy to see someone like May and connect to that character, because I think deep down we all hope that we would turn out to be like her in some way, shape, or form in our own lives. When you see May pull out a gun from a handbag in a hotel during unpacking, you have to wonder if she’s going back to her old hometown to settle some scores instead of just being on an innocent road trip. Stephanie is going through the aftermath of a divorce, which explains a little bit of why she’s the queen of no-fun, as “The Eve Of May” introduces us to her. Scenes like stopping at the adult shop instead of the ice cream store are great…I loved the idea of May deciding she needed to be involved in a drug deal…and the spot where Stephanie’s grandmother decides to drive backwards (quite recklessly) to pick up a hitchhiker all produce some much-needed laughs. Scenes like where May gets to revisit and tour her old house were really sweet to watch, too. I think we can all appreciate the memories that certain places can have us suddenly recalling, and trust me, you get a real doozy out of her while she’s in the middle of the tour. There are also other special moments to be found along the way, like when May decides she and her granddaughter should crash a bachelorette party, for instance – that whole sequence is truly awesome. Mark Schneider, playing the character of Floyd, who now owns and has been restoring May’s old house, was such a necessary addition to this film. That organic and natural delivery for the dialogue we’d been missing a little bit gets put right on track when he appears, and his influence directly affects the others sharing scenes with him, helping them get the best out of each other, and indeed the script as well. When “The Eve Of May” feels unforced, the better off the whole movie seemed to be – but admittedly, we kind of drift between levels of quality in that regard, and a steady balance seems constantly elusive.
What in the heck of all props? Look…I think we can all recognize from the get-go that a film like “The Eve Of May” isn’t exactly made with millions and millions of dollars, but there are spots where you don’t always need to pinch pennies when making a film. For example, I give you Exhibit A, where May decides she should pick up a hitchhiker because she’s never done it before, and Stephanie grabs the ‘Pepper Spray’ out of the glove compartment for safety. How do we know it’s pepper spray? Well, they made it easy for us to identify – it’s the large garden-variety spray bottle, clearly marked with a generic white label that says ‘Pepper Spray’ on it. That’s how. Like, I’m literally picturing a bottle filled with water and about five peppercorns floating around in it, not the professional stuff they’re alluding to. It’s strange little details like these that can absolutely have viewers snapping out of the storyline for a moment to question what they’re seeing onscreen, and anytime your suspension of disbelief is broken, a story can potentially lose some momentum. The point is, don’t let it happen over the small details…save it for the big stuff…plot-holes and such…not the labels on a bottle or some prop you could have spent $5 on. Or how about the scene later on down the road where it actually gets used in the middle of a drug deal gone wrong? No offence to ya, Mr. Robison, but have you ever actually bought drugs, or used ‘pepper spray’ before? When bad props meet thin details, things go sideways pretty quickly. What I don’t understand is how things like this pass by so many people without being properly questioned. As far as the filming itself goes, I didn’t feel like there were any glaring issues there – Ray shows us what is needed for the story to work onscreen, but also doesn’t really go out of his way to do anything out of the ordinary either. As for the pace of the film and its script, I’d say neither is a complete letdown by any stretch of the imagination, but both these aspects could still be sharpened up a little bit, too. I would think that for most, a movie with May is not all that much different than taking a road trip with your own grandparent of choice…like I said, it’s almost so accurate that it’s potentially detrimental. It’s enjoyable, but hard to feel excited about at the same time. Not to pick on the elderly, but this movie essentially moves along like it’s pushing a walker, and I have to wonder how much that has an impact on its overall appeal to the broader audience out there. Plot-wise…most of it makes plenty sense, but there are a few unresolved issues along the way – like, why did May ever feel like she was going to need a gun, for example? I’m not saying it doesn’t come in handy at one point, but what originally made her think to bring it along? And if Stephanie & May can harmonize as well as they do when singing, why didn’t we get a whole bunch more of that as they travelled? Alright, that last point might be more of a personal desire than a plot hole, but you gotta use the advantages where you can find’em when making a movie, right? “The Eve Of May” takes some interesting twists before it’s over, but I think I’m going with 2.5 out of 5 stars here – it’s solid, watchable content, but it stands to be forgotten like a memory in an old folks home. |
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