Of course, there is a drawback, in that the serum literally leaves them “numb” to life, and ultimately useless. Because of this side effect, six humans, known as Security Agents, were genetically altered to be immune to the numbing effect of the Drip in order to maintain control and organize the dosing process, with most of the surviving humans having been herded into the quickly collapsing confines of Yerba City. The Agents, though, eventually succumb to the disease, and Claire finds herself asking the last of them, Miles (Dominik Overstreet), to help her find her father.
Luckily, despite my never having heard from them before, as well as the fact that everything I just wrote doesn’t really become clear until you’ve watched the film a couple of times, the story was propelled along by some superb acting. Savitch and Overstreet, in particular, help to make a confusing and sprawling story watchable. Of course, this all makes it a shame that they’ve both hung up their acting coats in the years since this movie was filmed.
While I’m definitely saying that this movie was compelling, interesting, well acted and well-written, I’m going to just come right out and say that it is also maddeningly frustrating. For instance, the first fifteen minutes of film are used in a very trippy collage of flashback and present day experiences, all in order to set a mood instead of laying down the groundwork of the story itself. At the end of those fifteen minutes, really, all you know is that something happened and that someone is subsequently searching for something.
Granted, that is the entire gist of the movie, but I’d have liked a bit more clarification in the beginning of a film, instead of being smothered in the emotional context. Another thing that I found odd upon first watching the film, was the director's choice to use super-saturated and grainy color footage for all of Claire’s flashbacks, when the rest of the film is in beautifully shot black and white.
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