10 Items or Less

Review By: Benjamin Lee
BenjaminLee@TheCinemaSource.com

It’s become rather natural now for a big name actor to try and slum it in a smaller production. Tom Cruise did it with Magnolia, Julia Roberts with Full Frontal, Mel Gibson in The Million Dollar Hotel, the list goes on. Once seen as a daring, brave move, it’s now seen as a last-ditch attempt for over-exposed actors to show that they don’t mind roughing it. I mean Julia Roberts did her own hair for Full Frontal and everything

So now the ball rolls to Morgan Freeman. There’s no denying his weight as an actor but there’s also no denying that his ‘wise narrator’ routine is starting to wear slightly thin. Always in a supporting role and always delivering an inspiring voice-over, he’s an impossible actor to dislike but he’s rapidly become a one trick pony, on the verge of self-parody. His last movie Edison flopped onto video, so he’s in desperate need of reinvention.

His choice for independent success is a strange one. 10 Items or Less comes from director Brad Silberling, who was behind such bigger movies as City of Angels and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. It’s one of those multi-platform low-budget releases which will be available on the internet the same day as it’s theatrical release. It’s a strange new way of releasing movies, one which hasn’t really caught on just yet. And, it’s doubtful Freeman’s attempt will make any difference.

He plays an unnamed actor who hasn’t worked for four years. In doing research for a new movie, he manages to get waylaid in a working class suburb of Los Angeles. He finds himself researching the workers of a supermarket and especially finds himself strangely drawn to Scarlet (Paz Vega), who works on the 10 items or less line. When he discovers that he can’t get back to his home, the two unlikely companions begin a journey together.

10 Items or Less is a weird little movie. The actor played by Freeman is never named and for all intensive purposes, he could well be playing himself. There are numerous references to him starring in ‘that thriller with Ashley Judd’ and his talent for narration is mimicked in a witty opening scene. For once, to give him credit, he’s not playing the role we all know, and used to love him for.

It’s rare to see him playing for laughs and it does make for a refreshing change. It’s not a role he completely pulls off, sometimes bordering on creepy rather than enigmatic, but he deserves an A for effort. It helps that he’s starring opposite the charming Paz Vega, best known to mainstream audiences for brightening up the misjudged Adam Sandler drama Spanglish. Their interplay is light and witty for the start but it soon descends into meaninglessness.

For such a short film, a teeny 82 minutes, 10 Items Or Less tends to drag as it progresses. Once the initial setup is down, the film has little else to ...