contract

The Contract (DVD)

U.S. Release Date: 7/24/07 (DVD)
Running Time: 1:36
Rated: R (Violence)

Cast: John Cusack, Morgan Freeman, Jamie Anderson, Jonathan Hyde, Corey Johnson, Alice Krige, Megan Dodds

Director: Bruce Beresford
Screenplay: Stephen Katz & John Daurrouzet
Music: Normand Corbeil
Studio: First Look International

The Contract does not qualify as a “major” motion-picture. Despite its marquee actors with unquestionable talent, The Contract never made it to the big-screen. Typically, when a production isn’t approved for a U.S. theatrical release, studios lack confidence in the film’s money-making abilities and/or quality. With The Contract, it’s the “and,” not the “or,” that applies.

Bruce Beresford’s The Contract equates the phrase “straight-to-DVD” with “straight into the garbage disposal.” The DVD is the cinematic equivalent of the cold leftover muck sitting on the edge of a once hot dinner plate. You wouldn’t step up to the plate and eat someone else’s leftover mess would you? Likewise, don’t sample The Contract; the experience leaves a bad taste in your mouth and provides cinemaniacs with a boredom-induced migraine. The only logical place to put this tepid sewage is down the drain and through the blade.

Burdened by the loss of his wife to cancer, former cop turned gym teacher Ray Keane (John Cusack) attempts to reconnect with his son, Chris (Jamie Anderson), via camping trip.

When the pair stumbles upon a cuffed military-trained assassin, named Frank Cardin (Morgan Freeman), Ray becomes determined to bring Frank to justice. As the opportunity for father-son bonding hits the gas, Ray and Chris race to get Frank into the hands of the authorities. But, completing this task turns out to be more difficult than imagined.

In addition to the FBI, a band of Frank’s men join in the search for the wanted mercenary. While most of Frank’s co-workers prove to be allies in their efforts, one assistant in particular enters the hunt with alternate intentions. Within the wilderness, the pursuit ensues; the only question is: who will emerge victorious?

Reeking of an underprivileged horror script, The Contract places characters in the dark, deserted mountains and lets killers and victims alike run amuck. If no one is around to do the rescuing and no one can hear you scream in the desolate woodland, does that intensify or belittle the plot? If the majority of The Contract took place in another locale would the plot hold up? What’s more, just when the characters escape the cold, shadowy, and rainy woods, they retreat and somehow reconvene in a patch of forestry near a funeral in the final act. Did the screenwriters assume that if the leads weren’t shaded under a canopy of leaves, then the story would fail and lose its intensity?

Who signed off on the release of The Contract? Who said, “This is a success,” after looking at the finished product? Why so many questions? The answer is simple: whoever signed the contract for The Contract should be reprimanded. No studio release this bad should be made visible to the public, and no script this weak should have ever made it to the cutting room floor.

The most implausible and despicable portion of The Contract is the reaction of the female camper who loses her husband and then subsequently links to Cusack’s character. When this woman goes from widow to love interest, The Contract begs audiences to throw whatever they have in their hands at the screen—forcefully.

The Contract’s most valuable aspects are the on-screen leads and the cinematography. However, in no way does the package of Cusack, Freeman, and scenery lead to anything worth your hard-earned money. Speaking of money, instead of okaying a $25 million budget, the parties involved should have made a generous donation to charity and terminated The Contract. With a near-nonexistent story, The Contract ought to have been put out of its misery long before it put movie watchers in the same state.