As a general rule, I’m a big believer in cinema moving forward. It’s vital for an artform to constantly renew and reinvigorate itself, in order to remain interesting and avoid stagnation. That’s why bold and visionary filmmakers are so important. To date, the writer and director of Reach Me – John Herzfeld – has been neither of those things (2 Days In The Valley, anyone?), but the new trailer for his latest movie suggests a move in a new, more intriguing direction.
The film is about a large collection of characters and their respective connections to a self-help book – titled ‘Reach Me’ – written by a reclusive author, played by Tom Berenger. Now, here’s the thing – it would seem that while this film represents the all-important forward motion for helmer Herzfeld, it may also prove to be the opposite for many in its cast – and that’s just fine. For the exception to that general rule of momentum is when actors return from the hinterland of cinematic junk food. Remember those heady days when Sylvester Stallone actually delivered thorough and layered performances? Back before he was Expendable, he was Rocky. Before he was Joe The Lion in Zookeeper, he was Freddy Heflin in Copland. Likewise, Berenger once seared across the screen in The Big Chill, before descending to the depths of the Sniper franchise.
Yes, it’s important to move forward, but sometimes, we just need these guys to go back to actually acting – rather than giving themselves repetitive strain injury churning out pointless shoot-em-ups. This new trailer seems to indicate that we might be getting just that – with impressive clips of Stallone and Berenger, along with Lauren Cohan (The Walking Dead), Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer), Thomas Jane (Hung), Kevin Connolly (Entourage), Terry Crews (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), Danny Aiello (Lucky Number Slevin), Cary Elwes (No Strings Attached), and Tom Sizemore (Paranormal Movie), among others.
Any film that features a number of seemingly unconnected characters being brought together by a common thread or theme will give rise to comparisons to movies such as Crash or Short Cuts – that’s inevitable. It’s important to give these endeavours a fair crack of the whip, however, because that way, we all keep moving forward. You can find out if Reach Me is worth reaching out for when it arrives in US cinemas on October 24. In the meantime, you can watch the trailer below.
