No movie robbery ever goes as planned, so when the trio of robbers in 7 Minutes say that their heist will only take the titular seven minutes to successfully pull off it obviously won’t be that easy. While the core of 7 Minutes is a heist drama showing a robbery gone wrong, the film goes back as far as three years to explore the lives of the three robbers and how they reached this point of desperation in their lives. The thrill of 7 Minutes is not knowing where the narrative is going to lead, which is a testament to the clever plotting and editing that builds tension throughout the movie.
Sam (Luke Mitchell), a former football star at his small-town Washington State high school, got knocked out of his promising college career by a crippling injury in his first game. Three years later he is working at a machine shop in poverty and his cheerleader girlfriend, Kate (Leven Rambin), is pregnant with his child. He gets by working with his brother Mike (Jason Ritter) selling dope, but Sam dreams of an easier way to make money. When his former teammate and best friend Owen (Zane Holtz) is released from prison, the three attempt to go into business together selling drugs. But things go wrong when the trio ends up owing more than $60,000 to a dangerous drug pusher. Their solution? Rob Sam and Mike’s uncle (Joel Murray). But the group has made some missteps in the days leading up to the crime which complicate what they hoped would be a simple smash-and-grab robbery.
Stylistically, 7 Minutes is less self-aware than a heist film like Reservoir Dogs. These are men committing a crime of desperation, not to be in a hip Tarantino film. While the actual robbery takes up only minutes of the film, writer/director Jay Martin balances the tense robbery scenes with often-poignant flashbacks that effectively develop the characters to engage the audience in their dilemma.
7 Minutes is also about the way lives in a small town intersect. Owen’s father (Kris Kristofferson) warns his son never to commit a crime with someone who is in a more desperate situation than he is. It’s sound advice, especially because hardened criminal Tuckey (a scary Kevin Gage) and depressed local cop Jerome (Brandon Hardesty) have key roles to play in the story. Both actors play their character roles extremely well, and in some way are even more engaging than the lead trio because their motivations are less clear to the audience at first.
The ending of the film will likely divide audiences. Some of the audience I saw the film with seemed dissatisfied. It’s understandable that some would like to see the film end with more consequences for one of the main characters. I am on the fence about it, and I look forward to speaking with friends about it once they see the movie. In that sense, creating a film that spurs debate proves Martin knows how to provoke an audience even though this is just his first film as a writer/director.
Regardless of what your feelings on the ending might be, the road to get there is thrilling and makes 7 Minutes definitely worth a watch. You might think you’ve seen all that can be done with a heist film already, but you haven’t seen something quite like this yet.
Review Overview
Recent Comments