Tuesday, July 15, 2008

The Gospel According to Eve

This past weekend I got out of the city to the left bank suburb of Waltham for a pre-final cut screening of a new independent film.

Eve (Alex Zielke) is at the pinnacle of her career. Intelligent Answers, the internet search company she runs with her best friend Carmen (Korinne Hertz) is flying high. They are sitting on a huge fortune in stock gains that they can cash in just six months, and they are about to launch a new search product called Gospel. But there is not much going on in Eve’s personal life, and she needs to take some time off to care for her ailing mother (not cancer). Rob (Rob Fallon), the freelance writer who comes for an interview, might be the perfect catch.

It’s a serious film, but there are some very funny moments. Nate Connors, in his second feature length film, is a riot as the super-geek Carl. And there is a charming yet bratty adolescent English girl (Holly Payne-Strange) that you would just love to pack off to Hogwarts. The rest of the ensemble cast is wonderful. You will never think about roast pork or stuffed peppers the same way again.

Alex, the lead actress, takes some chances as Eve that remind of Jennifer Jason Leigh in Washington Square (1997) or Olivia De Havilland in The Heiress (1949). And it doesn’t get any easier when it is her own money and not an inheritance in waiting. The actor who plays Rob as a laid back Jesus lookalike is a US Forest Ranger.

The movie was shot on location at two of my favorite places, World’s End in Hingham and the Minuteman Bike Trail at Spy Pond in Arlington. It will be an artifact of how we lived and worked in the early internet age, the dumpy way we looked and dressed, and what passes for a pathetic New England Christmas with anemic snow in the age of global warming. I’ll want a copy of the DVD.

I give it 3 stars, with hope for 4 stars on final cut. (I’ve never given a chick flick 5 stars.) Right now the working title is Everyday Answers and it may be out for the fall 2008 film festival season.

Cast and crew:

Eve: Alex Zielke
Rob: Rob Fallon
Carmen: Korinne Hertz
Carl: Nate Connors
Martin: Fred Robbins
Anya: Janelle Mills
Renee: Liz Robbins
Bertie: Holly Payne-Strange
Karen: Jackie Stachel
Mike: John Ralston Craig
Real Estate Agent: Eve Passeltiner
Dentist: Bob Hannon
Dental Patient: Molly Kimmerling

Co-directors: Rose Carlson and Bob Stachel
Written by: Bob Stachel, Courtney Lamb, and Kathleen Rogers
Produced by: Bob Stachel, Rose Carlson, Jackie Stachel and Mike Decoteau
Edited by: Bob Stachel, Mike Decoteau, and Elton James
Featuring songs by: Linda Sharar

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