Home
for the holidays and slightly stoned, Holly, Cali, and Mel are looking for
something to do on a cold Christmas Eve. Cali suggests they kick up their heels
in her rich uncle’s pad, because he doesn’t mind her having the run of the
place. Holly and Mel agree, even though there is something funny about her
story (they’re stoned, remember). After a little breaking and entering
(seriously, he won’t mind), they start hit the rec room hard. Eventually, Holly
has the sense to ask why there are so many pictures of an Asian family on the
wall.
It
turns out there is no rich uncle. Cali used to babysit for the owners years ago
and knew they would be away for the holidays. As this uncomfortable truth sinks
in, the girls are surprised by the creepy caretaker. Things get a bit confused,
resulting in his apparently fatal accident. With no legal justification for
their presence there, the three friends need to get their stories straight, but
the circumstances and resulting moral dilemmas keep getting more complicated.
The
good news for Larry Fessenden fans is he has a new genre film at Slamdance. The
bad news is he spends nearly the entire film flat on his back. Still, let’s
just say he has his moments. Nevertheless, the relationship between the three
twentysomething women really forms the heart of the film. Berk & Olsen take
a fair amount of time to establish their complicated relationships somewhere
along the continuum between friends and frienemies. Viewers get the sense they
have long histories together and are used to being around each other, even if
their feelings are a bit ambiguous. There is also something vicariously
enjoyable about watching them run amok in that swanky pad.
