A 2001 thriller directed by Jeff Probst.
Tepper finds a wallet on the street and decides to call the only phone number he can find in the wallet to try to contact the owner, so he gives his address saying that if he wants to recover the wallet he can go to his apartment. However, shortly thereafter he discovers that the winning ticket is in the wallet.
Finder’s Fee is a film with a script that is full of convenient twists and situations made with the intention of being gimmicky, complicating the plot in an unconvincing way.
A winning lottery ticket inside a lost wallet, okay, I’ll buy it, that’s the idea of the movie. The next thing we know, however, is that the character has previously planned a poker game with his friends, in which it is obligatory to bet lottery tickets. o_O
And that is just the beginning of a series of not very plausible situations.
Jeff Probst, writer and director, takes eight actors and an apartment and tries to create conflict and tension for an hour and forty minutes, pushing his characters to make unwise decisions. I don’t understand why he visually approaches some scenes like a horror film, and anything related to drama or romance also seems overdone.
The film’s cast includes Erik Palladino, James Earl Jones, Matthew Lillard, Ryan Reynolds, Robert Forster, Dash Mihok, Carly Pope and Frances Bay. I don’t consider that there is any good acting in this film, it’s not only a matter of the actors, the characters are stereotypes or puppets in the service of the script. But special mention for Ryan Reynolds, because it is perhaps his worst performance.
Despite being quite absurd, Finder’s Fee is still far from the worst thing I’ve seen, so I can accept that it can be relatively entertaining. In fact, it apparently won a few awards: Best Film at the Golden Space Needle Award, Best Screenplay at the Method Fest Independent Film Festival o_O, and Best Actor in a DVD Premiere Movie at the DVDX Awards.
If you saw the movie, let me know your opinion and if you haven’t seen it yet, let me know if you are interested in seeing it or if you prefer to see something different.
A psychological horror film directed by Edgar Wright.
A psychological drama film directed by Steve McQueen.