TWO WRONGS
Canada, 2015, 88 minutes, Colour.
Gillian Zinser, Ryan Blakely, Brooklyn Lax, Aidan Devine, Andrea Frankle, Linda Thorson, Matt Bois.
Directed by Tristan Dubois.
Two Wrongs is an interesting telemovie, perhaps a bit far-fetched in its storytelling and motivation, but keeping audience attention while it is on-screen.
The film introduces us to a district nurse, played by Gillian Zinser, who has a little girl who has a tendency to wander – getting the audience ready for an abduction. The nurse has a number of clients, one rather flirtatious, and is at the disposal of the central management organisation. She also has a strong mother, wants her daughter to move in with her and to care for the granddaughter. She is also an earnest churchgoer.
The audience has seen a man stalking the nurse and her daughter so is not surprised when the little girl is abducted. It emerges that the abductor was the father of a little girl who had been taken, the effect on his wife being very mentally disturbing and needing medication, and his plan for the killing of the abductor who had been freed by the court on a technicality.
The criminal is one of the nurse’s patients and she is threatened that unless she ties him up, and administers medication, her daughter will die.
Eventually, the patient confesses to what he has done, especially at the insistence of the nurse’s mother who then has no compunction in wanting to kill him. Her daughter cannot bring herself to be a killer. She has gone to the address given to her by her patient, encounters the wife and then the husband who urges her to go to the police – nevertheless going to a phone box and continuing to threaten the nurse.
Ultimately, the patient guesses where the demented mother is taking the abducted child and they go there as the woman threatens to take the little girl into the water, as she had done with her own daughter. The mother rescues her daughter and the patient dives in to help – but drowns.
There is quite a superfluous emotional half minutes at the end with a kiss between the nurse and the flirtatious patient!
1. An interesting and entertaining television film? An abduction story?
2. Canadian production, American settings, the American town, homes, school, streets? Authentic feel? The musical score?
3. The credibility of the plot while on screen, persuasive? On further analysis, the Implausibilities?
4. Introduction to Sarah, age, mother, with Lauren, her relationship to her own mother? On her rounds, the variety of patients, treating Gerald, Mark and his flirting? Going to the head office, the staff and her relationships, commissions?
5. Sarah as a mother, her daughter and her age, the various scenes where Lauren disappeared and her mother was anxious, preparing the audience for the abduction? Lauren wandering away, the market, outside Gerald’s house and being observed?
6. The anonymous stalker, his phone call and covering his voice? His demands, Sarah’s shock?
7. Showing the stalker, his taking Lauren, keeping her in the basement, sedated? His wife, her bewildered state? His genuine concern for her? The medication? The revelation that their daughter had been abducted, had died? Suffocated in the boot of the car?
8. Sarah going to Gerald, the injection, tying him up, the gag? Her waiting for the phone call? Not knowing why she was asked to do this? Her deception at headquarters and getting the medication? Calling the police, the arrival, her saying that all was well?
9. Her mother, religious and church, wanting Sarah to move in? Her concern, being put off by her daughter, following her, at Gerald’s house?
10. Gerald, his denial, finally admitting the truth, paedophile, abducting little girls, loving this one, the hot day, in the boot of the car, her suffocating? His trial, the technicalities, his freedom? Changing his name?
11. Sarah, her listening, her fears? Her mother, confronting Gerald, urging him to confess, his doing so, her anger, her vengeful attitude?
12. The phone calls, the uncertainties? The motivation for the father for Gerald to die? And the later revelation that he was absent, that he was drunk, that he had not saved his daughter?
13. Gerald giving the address, Sarah going, the stalker seeing her, going to the house, the wife, her explanations about her daughter, the father and his denials, urging her to ring the police?
14. Sarah being urged to kill Gerald, preparing the syringe, her mother prepared to use the syringe, Gerald saying that she would be the equivalent of him? Sarah unable to kill Gerald?
15. The mother, not taking pills, her hallucinations, taking Lauren in the car, to the park, urging her to go into the water?
16. The father, his going to the park?
17. Gerald, with Sarah, working out that they would go to the park, Sarah and her pleading with the mother, the mother letting Lauren go, Sarah swimming and saving her? The husband saving his wife? Gerald and his urge to help, in the water, his drowning – deliberately or not?
18. Everything restored – and the superfluous romantic ending with the family and Sara kissing Mark?
