BALANCING THE BOOKS/FATAL SECRETS
US, 2009, 88 minutes. Colour.
Dina Meyer, Vincent Spano, Lea Thompson, Lela Rochon, Ed Begley Jr, Ernie Hudson, Tess Harper.
Directed by Meir Sharony.
Balancing the Books is a brief melodrama, very much the material of a television episode, except that the subject matter is more adult, concerned with rape and vengeance, ultimately to murder, and execution of the perpetrator.
The film focuses on Dina Meyer as Julia, a divorcee who goes out with an attractive businessman, Scott (Vincent Spano). When they return to her apartment, he rapes her. At first she is quiet about the issue except for discussing it with a lawyer. However, she confides in her two best friends, who also join her in a book reading club. They are portrayed by Lea Thompson and Lela Rochon. They try to investigate the background of the man, find that he is a phony, discover that he had raped a young woman who had committed suicide, was the son of a minister and had acted as a minister in a church before embezzling the funds. Ed Begley portrays the father, Ernie Hudson a detective on the case, Tess Harper the distraught mother of the girl who was raped.
The film is very much a story from a female point of view, the impact of the rape, the consequences, the attitude towards the man, confronting him. When the women abduct him as well as take the money that he had embezzled, they confront him, wearing masks, wanting to record him confessing. He turns the tables on them. They turn the tables on him – finally wounding him and ultimately killing him.
The film ends with the women considering what they had done, having to live with the consequences.
1. Audience interest in the film? The themes? The characters? Crime, vengeance? Jutice – and vigilante attitudes?
2. The affluent setting, Julia and her background, her friends and their comfortable lives? The church in the South, Scott and his lavish lifestyle? The police investigation? The musical score?
3. Audience attitude towards Julia and Scott, the impact of the rape sequence? Audiences empathising with Julia? Her reticence? Her talking to the lawyer, investigating Scott’s background and her discoveries? Confiding in Charlene, then in Rebecca? Their advice? Going with Charlene to Scott’s house after following him, finding the money? His lavish lifestyle? His seeing them on the surveillance screen? The plans, Rebecca talking to her lawyer husband? The abduction, the interrogation? The masks? Wanting to record Scott, getting him to tell the truth? His backing off? Turning the tables, getting control, the women getting control of him? His pleading for his life? His death? Julia and the consequences?
4. Rebecca, her difficulties in her relationship with her husband? Her support of Julia? Charlene, encouraging Julia to go out? Accompanying her in the search of Scott’s house? Their participation in the abduction? The violence?
5. Julia’s visit to the church, the encounter with the minister, his lack of cooperation, protecting his son? Saying that the churchgoers supplied the money that was embezzled?
6. Julia’s visit to Naomi, Naomi’s unwillingness, talking with Julia, the anguish of the distraught mother?
7. The investigation, Detective Carter? The police?
8. The credibility of the plot? The vigilante emphasis? The impossibility for justice? Taking justice into one’s own hands? The consequences? The aptness of the title, the balancing of the justice books?
