Rise

Overview

In the low-budget prison drama Rise, an innocent young man is sentenced to six years in jail after being falsely accused of rape. It's a troubling tale inspired by the real life experiences of first time writer/director Mack Lindon, who himself was incarcerated for more than 18 months before being completely exonerated on appeal. Lindon's lingering sense of outrage is palpable throughout the film, and justifiably so. At the same time, it's difficult not to feel uncomfortable with the way that his screenplay, intentionally or not, plays into false myths about sexual assault.

For the record, I have nothing but sympathy for Mack Lindon. Ultimately though, a film has to exist separately from the events on which it is based. To that end, Rise totally fails to acknowledge the fact that, in a vast majority of rape cases, the accused party actually did it. It's perfectly reasonable for Lindon to want to publicly reaffirm his innocence. Yet by dramatising his story for the screen, he has ended up perpetuating the commonly held belief that phony rape complaints occur more frequently than they do. Gone Girl copped flack for a similar issue, admittedly, but there you could argue it was part of a broader social critique. No such defence can be mounted here.

Even without the dodgy gender politics, however, Rise is fairly atrocious. Once in lock-up, Lindon's onscreen surrogate Will (Nathan Wilson) learns to navigate prison life, doing his best to stay out of trouble, and eventually bonding with a number of inmates. These secondary characters hold some dramatic promise, particularly hardened criminal Jimmy Cove (Martin Sacks). But the dialogue, though earnest, sounds painfully forced, and frequently lapses into melodrama. When one inmate tells Will he's been in prison "in here" while placing his hand on his head, there's little you can do to suppress a snigger. The self-righteous Christian overtones don't exactly help matters, either.

Lindon attempts to inject some additional gravitas via his directorial choices, including an angst-ridden soundtrack and a handful of instances of "arty" slow-motion. Sadly, it's all pretty cringeworthy, particularly when you take into account the movie's strange tonal imbalance that neuters any stabs at dramatic weight. While Will languishes in prison, his bumbling lawyer attempts to recruit the services of Queen's Council Julie Nile (Erin Connor), in a strange comic subplot has no place in such a (supposedly) serious film. That said, it's not nearly as bad as the unintentional comedy of the climax, a contrived courtroom scene with the most ludicrous 'eureka!' moment since the finale of Legally Blonde.

At the end of the day, Lindon obviously had some things that he needed to get off his chest. If nothing else, Rise is clearly an intensely personal story, and under the circumstances, perhaps its questionable content can be partially forgiven. But it's a lot harder to overlook the film's basic technical ineptitude. If Lindon has any desire to keep making movies, there's a lot he needs to learn.