Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
The water cradles and caresses in 'Twang' which was screened at the inaugural Flash Point Film and Music Festival in Negril, Westmoreland, last weekend. - CONTRIBUTED
TWANG!, WRITTEN and directed by Storm, is a funny story which attempts to combine a romantic comedy and a mystery thriller to some effect. It was the second feature film of the inaugural Flash Point Film and Music Festival, which took place at The Caves in Negril, Westmoreland, over Emancipation weekend.
The movie works along two plotlines, which eventually meet. First is the tale of Jacko and his gigolo friends, who prey on tourists. Jacko seeks a real relationship, staying out of the fray of easy women and assuming you can get the right 'twang' to make yourself understood. As such, he is often the butt of jokes from his brother and friends and goes off by himself.
This element of the movie brings out the economics of poverty that accompany the tourism industry, as the young gigolos see selling their own flesh as their way out of poverty. In this way, it is somewhat evocative of Smile Orange, though Twang's comedic impact is not yet in the league of that earlier Trevor Rhone flick.
Even so, the romantic comedy element of the film is its stronger component and the film would have been better off exploring Jacko's search for romance and fleshing out the characters, as many of them remain caricatures to the end.
ENGAGING PERFORMANCE
Jabari Marshall (Jacko), however, delivered an unaffected, engaging performance and it also helped that he makes great eye candy. Robbie Robertson was less impressive in this role than in his earlier stint in the Joel Burke short film Bad Lucky, which had been screened earlier that night.
The suspense thriller elements of the movie were, unfortunately, of B movie quality. Additionally, it was also not the good B movie where everything is so bad it's funny. One got the distinct feeling that it was added to try to make the film different from your average romantic comedy.
This was affirmed by the film's writer, who noted that the thriller element was added to make the film unique. He should be well aware though, that there was nothing average about the romantic comedy segment of the film and it would truly have soared had more time and effort been spent fleshing it out.
The main problem with the thriller sub-plot was that the characters were very badly conceptualised and wallowed in stereotypes that seemed to have been culled from late night television, where bad movies from the black and white era are still allowed to run around unrestrained.
With exception of Mervin Spence, who makes a great villain, the performances in this segment were also weaker than those of persons in the romantic comedy element. Indeed, the romantic comedy and thriller could have lived well together if the sub-plot had not been so hackneyed.
Indeed, it acted as the 'twang' that makes a perfectly sensible person sound like a dolt.
