Chances are, anyone reading this has at one time or another sat in a coffee shop, pub, restaurant, or mall and engaged in the activity of people-watching. As different patrons come and go, you sip your beverage and think to yourself – what is their story? Why are they with the people they are with? Where did they come from? Where are they going? These strangers that share the Earth with us are only extras in our own self-centered universe. Here for no other reason than to fill the gaps between space and time in the pathway of our lives and existence. Sometimes we forget that they are looking at us in the exact same way.
Writer/Director Marc Erlbaum – who’s responsible for a handful of other movies you’ve never heard of – created the 2011 independent film “Cafe,” based almost entirely on this premise and manages to pull off a decent tale with an unexplainable intrigue and shockingly superb acting performances by talent that, for the most part, have lackluster credentials at best.
The story begins in a quaint West Philadelphia neighborhood as a score of police are rushing to the scene of a seemingly pleasant corner coffee shop in the wake of an unidentified situation. The movie then flashes back to last Sunday – less than a week before, where the story is then distributed one day at a time leading back up to the events at the start.
Everyone inside the café is busy going about their daily lives and routines, all with the coffee shop serving as a backdrop that connects these otherwise would-be-strangers. Each day that passes reveals more and more of the back stories of the participants as the viewer attempts to determine what exactly happened at the beginning and of course, whodunnit? Various pieces of the puzzle are revealed, leading to a plethora of possibilities.
Working the counter are Todd and Claire. Todd (Daniel Eric Gold) is a typical bistro waiter with a pacifistic demeanor who uses the job to fund his dreams of being a musician. Todd has a secret crush on Claire (Jennifer Love Hewitt) who is the film’s only recognizable name and playing a role she seems typecast to do forever – she’s in an abusive relationship with a jerk and is the object of Todd’s desires though she has no idea (despite his blatant flirting and disparaging remarks about her current boyfriend.) The tattoos on Hewitt’s arms look fake, not hipster as intended, and her suspect acting makes you wish they’d cast another lesser known female for the role. Claire is also shown to be overly kind and gratuitous, emptying her tip jar to give the money to a patron in need and taking a genuine interest in the troubles of the customers.
One by one, we are introduced to the rest of the café’s clientele and given a little glimpse of their back-stories; a local police officer who has a cousin that’s in trouble with drugs; a social worker interviewing two young and very different hopefuls for a position; a heavyset nerd of a man playing on his laptop; a married man contemplating an affair with a woman he has just met, and a table of criminals led by preppy looking drug dealer Glenn (Jamie Kennedy.)
As the patrons go about their lives in a egocentric way, seemingly oblivious to the other people around them, a mysterious young girl named Elly (Madeline Carroll) begins chatting with the nerd (Hubbel Palmer) via his computer, and a writer (Richard Short) sitting at a table alone in the corner seems to be documenting in his journal all that is happening around him.
As mentioned before, the acting from the ensemble cast is some of the best you will ever see. I was blown away by the performance of Derek Cecil, who plays the un-named man contemplating an adulterous fling. Cecil absorbed the role like a sponge, perfectly balancing the character as he awkwardly flirts with a strange woman and contemplates the ultimate marital sin. Counterbalancing him is the performance of his potential affair, Michaela McManus. Playing the part of a single woman who quickly discovers her new friend is married and becomes even more intrigued. McMnaus has terrific acting talent and I must admit, I got lost in the sea of her eyes half a second after seeing them and had no interest in being rescued by a lifeguard. Even comedian Jamie Kennedy delivers as the slimy, though impeccably dressed, drug dealer Glenn.
My biggest complaint is that the potential twist of an ending, which could have had limitless possibilities, was divulged far toosoon. Twenty minutes in the secret is explained, when it should have waited until twenty minutes before the end. Despite that, the story and the last scene in particular had a “Twilight Zone” chill to it. All in all, Café is a decent movie that will keep you entertained from start to finish.
– by Matt Christopher
