...and certainly not as well as the femme fatale's clothing fits her, but this is still a decent little thriller that delivers handsomely on a relatively small budget, despite an Act Three resolution that doesn't quite live up to the build. David Denneen guides an excellent cast through his feature-length debut with remarkable assurance and style; where has this guy been the past decade? Said cast does him and the unfortunately flawed script proud: newcomer, Travis "The Big Valley" Fimmel, authoritatively conjurers a young Brad Pitt, Teresa "I Am Number Four" Palmer can't help but make one think of a young Nicole Kidman, and Steven "True Blood" Moyer proves he can ably sink his teeth into a role without fangs. Denneen couldn't have asked for better.
The plot is drawn from the same well as films like "Kalifornia," "Natural Born Killers," and progenitors like "Badlands." Crazed young couple on the lam, home invasion, cat and mouse monkey business, and the inevitable comeuppance of the perps, with minor variations to keep it interesting. It's pretty tightly written until the unlikely third act, as if scripter Dave "Garage Days" Warner ran out of juice and fell back on stock Hollywood resolution. Still, "Restraint" earns enough welcome to mostly make up for the fizzled finale. I stumbled across it at the library, and familiarity with two of the three leads was enough to pique my interest. I was not displeased.
