Ostensibly telling a story
about three brothers battling each other for control of an inheritance, Brother, Cry for Me is an incoherent
mess. The first 15 minutes of the picture comprise a pointless scene of
brawling and debauchery at a pool party. Things don’t improve from there.
Michael (Richard Davatos) and his conniving wife, Jenny (Leslie Parrish),
travel to Boca Raton after Michael receives a letter stating he’s the sole heir
of—well, depending on which scene, it’s either a coffee plantation or a fortune
in Aztec treasure. Upon arriving in Florida, Michael encounters his estranged
brother, Geoffrey (Steve Drexel). Their other sibling, Jim (Larry Pennell),
isn’t far behind. On land and in various rinky-dink boats, the brothers try to
kill each other, with Geoffrey and Jim pursuing the additional motive of wooing
Jenny away from Michael. Tracking the movie in any greater detail would require
exhaustive rewinding, because the storytelling is disastrous. Bad actors share
the screen with performers who are merely mediocre, but horrible filmmaking
levels the playing field—with scripting and direction this bad, everyone comes
off poorly. Worse, the film’s Floridian locations make every frame look cheap
and oversaturated and ugly. The amateurism infusing the picture even taints
simple transitional bits; in a particularly galling touch, the same hissing
sound effect is used to accompany separate cutaway shots of an alligator and a
snake. Really? Every reptile in the Everglades makes the exact same sound? By the time subplots about a larcenous youth and
a police inspector enter the mix, Brother,
Cry for Me has become hopelessly confused, and nothing prior to that point
makes the trouble of figuring out what’s happening seem worthwhile.
Brother, Cry for Me: SQUARE
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