Anyone
who has read Jack London’s Assassination
Bureau or seen Bulworth knows
there are some contracts you cannot cancel.
Unfortunately, if a spurned woman was familiar with them (or the dozens
of thematically similar books and movies), she is too drunk to remember when
venting online about her decidedly not-fiancé.
This leads to trouble in Dane Clark & Linsey Stewart’s I Put a Hit on You (trailer here), which screens
during the 2014 Slamdance Film Festival in Park City.
When
the thoroughly type-A Harper pops the question to the more laidback Ray, you
could say he reacts rather badly. Badly
stung, she retreats into a bottle of wine and starts fooling around on Craig’s
List (or a generic proxy). When she
comes to, she realizes she has struck a bargain with some creepy netizen to kill
Ray in exchange for her engagement ring.
In a panic, she races to Ray’s flat for a series of increasingly awkward
conversations.
IPAHOY is one of those
economical films, whose titles also serve as synopses. Essentially, it is also a two-hander, primarily
shot in two locations. Granted, it is shrewdly assembled from a budgetary
perspective, but there is no getting around its inherent staginess. Since we
never really see much of the mysterious outsider, the film necessarily consists
mostly of Harper and Ray bickering and bantering.
As
Harper and Ray (who sound like a publishing company), Sara Canning and Aaron
Ashmore have an okay screen rapport, but there’s nothing here you would
consider movie magic. Still, they are quite believable as a functionally dysfunctional
couple.
