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Review: Slick 'Selfless' all about thrills
By Special to The Oregonian
November 06, 2009, 8:10AM
Portland indie filmmakers Arnold and Jacob Pander's "Selfless" hinges on a brutally effective identity theft that leaves an ambitious architect losing everything. But by the time the hubristic victim is told he deserves his misery, you've seen enough to kinda-sorta agree with such twisted logic.
The Panders clearly adore Alfred Hitchcock films, and it's not hard to imagine the master himself devising this protagonist and the way he's done in. Dylan Gray (Joshua Rengert), the star of a Portland boutique architectural firm, is sky-high after a Seattle corporation approves his fanciful "green" design for an office tower. But he gets himself in trouble when, trying to impress a flight attendant in an airport, he sketches an unflattering picture of the wrong man at the wrong time. Very quickly, Dylan's life unravels, but sympathy for the guy is tempered by mounting evidence that he is an ungracious, arrogant jerk.
"Selfless" is slick and well-made, with nicely composed shots emphasizing the clean, perfect lines that define Dylan's world. The Panders' vision of Portland is ultra-modern: Dylan and his girlfriend (October Moore) live in an antiseptic Pearl District apartment tower, and much of the film makes use of similarly chic but impersonal locations. Rengert and Moore have their moments, but the cast's standout is Mo Gallini as the glowering, apoplectic identity thief who makes life hell for Dylan.
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