Treed Murray is the story of an upper middle class suit who clashes with a teenaged gang and gets cornered up a tree. It makes for a clever mind-messer that owes a thematic debt to all the great isolation/psyche-out movies. Think Twelve Angry Men in a treetop, Lifeboat on a limb, Cube high in clustered branches.
But dig deeper into William Phillips' feature writing/directing debut and this is a cautionary tale not about the dangers of taking a shortcut across a city ravine, but of the costs of taking shortcuts through life. Like its characters, it has a lot more going on than it initially appears.
At first, advertising exec Murray (David Hewlett) seems to be doing nothing more than saving time by traversing a city park one afternoon when he's accosted by 14-year-old Carter (Kevin Duhaney), a diminutive kid with a barely-formed idea of mugging the man with the briefcase. Murray shoves him aside, knocking him down, and it's obvious that he's discounting Carter's existence beyond just the physical.
Carter's friends emerge from the shadows and chase Murray until he seeks refuge in a towering beech. From his perch, he surrenders his wallet and his watch but refuses to give the pride-wounded kids what they now want more: An apology from the soft, white man who treated their friend like a piece of park litter.
Rooting through his attache case they find pictures of the pieces of his life -- his family, his projects -- which they use against him. But the evidence may lie. As the standoff unfolds, it becomes clear that Murray is the sort who has faked and fudged half his existence and most of his image. Professionally, he preys on the same sort of malleable young people as the group that holds him captive: Those who can't afford what advertising persuades them they must have, teens convinced by media images to answer alienation with violence and suburban kids sold gangsta cool along with their running shoes.
Hewlett is note-perfect as the blandly handsome everyman whose amorality is revealed layer by layer.
The gang's leader is Shark (Cle Bennett, in a breakout performance), a sullen menace but also one with smarts.
"People like me win," Murray says smugly, but soon we're less sure.
With his own ability to sell an idea, Shark has rallied a motley group of followers, but like Murray, his only real allegiance is to himself. While Murray effectively works on their psychological weaknesses, Shark's strength is his willingness to sacrifice them to win.
The film is tight and fast and never less than interesting. It gives the audience credit for thinking for itself with a provocative, ambiguous ending that challenges us to consider our responsibility for those whose paths we cross, intentionally or not.
Subtract a few points for a cheesy product placement -- an extra wears a baseball cap logoed with the name of the network which has TV rights. Having a homeless man spout karmic wisdom is cliche. One over the top attempt to elevate the sense of danger doesn't ring true.
But all in all, Treed Murray will leave you eager to see what subject director Phillips branches out to next.
(This film is rated AA)
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