Ill Fated

Ill Fated is a thoroughly bizarre yet strangely compelling film featuring a plot that occasionally seems as though it’d be more at home in a trashy soap opera. The story follows a young man named Jimmy (Paul Campbell) who wants nothing more than to leave his small town behind and attend college. His friends think he’s abandoning them, while Barb (Nicki Clyne) has just announced that she’s pregnant with his baby. Complicating matters is the fact that Jimmy’s biological father (played by Paul Outerbridge) has just rolled into town, and doesn’t want Jimmy to make the same mistakes he did. It’s clear that director Mark A. Lewis (who co-wrote the film’s screenplay with John Callander) has talent – he imbues the film with a tangible sense of style – but there’s no denying that the various over-the-top elements in the story do more damage than good. The character of Jimmy’s grandfather (played by John F. Parker) is a perfect example of this, as he seems to have wandered in off the set of a ’40s Western. Certain oddball plot twists are enjoyable – in a Melrose Place sort of way – but they don’t really jive with some of the more serious aspects of the story.

**1/2 out of ****