Zero Absolution (2018) User Reviews

An inaudible mess that just doesn't stick....

[Nukem999 · 1/10 · 6 March 2018]

You know something's wrong when the minute the film starts you can;t stand what your hearing.

"Zero Absolution" is a pretty straight forward story about Daphne, a girl from California who plans to start a new life and ends up finding a lot of jerks, perverts and stingy citizens who don't lend her a hand or give her a break. Things all change when a guy by the name of Rex sweeps his way into Daphne's life and turns everything in her life into everything she had hoped for....but finds out the hard way Rex and the life he promised her is not what she thought it would be. What follows is a messy turn of events that makes Daphne question everything she's ever done and how to emerge from this mess unscathed.

The audio is atrocious, it's either painfully loud or disruptively too low to hear; forcing you to constantly adjust your volume settings to either being too low or too loud to understand. If anyone had actually approached a woman with Rex's "charms" and pick up lines, he;'d probably get maced right off the bat. The dialog is as bare bones generic as you can possibly get. It's terribly paced, the jokes don't work and the chemistry is non-existent. Nothing works here, no one works in it, no one works together and nothing in this film works. Even the most dramatic turn design to build and explode tension into full blown conflict fails miserably to come off as believable. I feel like no one knows who they are supposed to be or who they are supposed to be playing, it's a live on the walk badly put together play with someone just carrying a giant microphone during the windiest season imaginable and hoping for things to play out much more cohesively than it actually is.

This movie killed my ears, drained my energy and just disappointed everything in every part of me. I tried, I really did but just no.

Small Budget, Big Story, Big Acting

[analevin · 7/10 · 7 March 2018]

I saw "Zero Absolution" a few days ago at a local screening. This indie film was done in Wisconsin, my home state, so that was an attraction from the start. I really liked this movie, the story was interesting, and had some twists I didn't see coming. But, for me, the best part of the movie was the acting. I didn't really expect to see such good acting on a film this small (not that I expected it to be horrible, but I didn't think I would be as impressed as I was). The story starts out with Daphne (Lindsay Ashcroft), a West Coast girl just moving to the Midwest who has a hard past. She meets Rex (Jack Sharkey), a successful guy who is quite flirty, and he and Daphne become involved after going on a couple of coffee dates. If it seems to good to be true that someone would meet their rich, handsome, true love right after getting into a new town, it is. Daphne soon finds out that Rex is very much married, and his wife, Julissa (Shea Madison), is none too pleased with her husband's cheating ways. After an emotional encounter where Julissa catches Rex and Daphne in bed together, unexpected events turn Daphne and Julissa into partners, of sorts, and they develop a plan that they hope will end up making them rich.

Along the way, Daphne and Julissa have to deal with Rex's not-too-stable business partner, Raquel Bowman (Lyndsey Wurch). The story takes some sharp turns that end up with none of the main characters being who they seem to be, but the question is which one of them (if any) is really decent. Like I said, the acting is very good, all four of the main actors more than hold their own opposite other strong performances. The story is told through the eyes of Ashcroft's character, and you can empathize with her even if you don't sympathize. Shea Madison's character is the most enigmatic, and she pulls it off so well that it is very surprising when (not to be a spoiler) her real motivation is revealed. Lyndsey Wurch's, Raquel, is unforgettable (though you probably won't like Raquel too much). Also a memorable performance from Beka, as Agent Trueblood; her interactions with Ashcroft's character are intense.

Overall, given budget limitations, I thought the script was interesting, the cinematography was okay, and the score in parts was really good. On the negative side, the audio could have been mixed better in some scenes and the outdoor scenes contain too much background noise. Also, it is a long running movie for an indie so, unless you're invested, it might seem a bit long. Luckily, I was - I enjoyed it.