Writer-director Dave Hansen neatly sidesteps the more preposterous moments in his script to deliver a thriller whose low budget doesn't get in the way of its high ambitions.
Wisconsin’s idyllic Eden Inn provides a refuge for fugitive couple Kurt (Jim Wasen) and Madalyn (Heather Prete). For unhappily married proprietor, Jackie Slayter (Carrie Hitchcock), the bed-and-breakfast enables her to share in the bliss of young couples just starting out in life. Ed (Brian Mani), on the other hand, views visitors as a sleazy business opportunity; secretly videotapes their bridal-suite guests, sells the sex footage on the amateur porn video circuit and cows his wife into silence. Although Jackie yearns to warn Ed’s latest underground stars, Madalyn and Kurt aren’t exactly virginal honeymooners: Kurt recently filmed Madalyn with her married boss, Charlie (Richard Pickren), hoping for a sexual harassment payday. But Charlie got a bit too frisky, so now Kurt intends to blackmail him for trying to rape Madalyn. Pretending to be their friend, Ed hangs out with Kurt and Madalyn and looks for an angle that will pressure the young chick into his bed. During a game of pool, sleazy Ed even offers to bet his vintage car against a one night stand with Kurt’s luscious bride. And don’t think Kurt isn’t tempted! Disgusted by Ed’s lasciviousness, Jackie is still seething about his getting a vasectomy without telling her; she takes a maternal interest in Madalyn and decides not to allow her to become another notch on Ed’s belt. Snooping through the couples’ belongings, Ed discovers what Kurt and Madalyn are up to and decides to cut himself in.
Madalyn, meanwhile, is nervous about Kurt's upcoming appointment with Charlie and pleads with him to call the whole thing off. A series of showdowns leaves two people dead and the survivors’ future happiness on the critical list.
Hansen deliberately telescoping his focus, examining four characters who hide their real faces from each other. As their secrets and lies clash, alliances form in this morally compromised universe where good people do bad things and bad people sometimes get away with doing even worse. leave a comment --Robert Pardi
