User Reviews

...of veteran Kathleen "Apollo 13" Quinlan, Ingrid "Living in Your Car" Kavelaars, and a notably effective youngster, Hannah "Dawn of the Dead" Lochner, this Canadian production mostly made me yearn for a more tightly drawn script from its tyro writer. The premise is interesting: a seemingly benign woman who offers safe haven to abused women turns out to be a bit more "concerned" than expected, but the execution is somewhat flat, and suffers the usual plot-hole problems that stories like this one almost invariably have. I won't belabor them beyond mentioning that disposing of corpses by feeding them to local predators isn't likely to remain undetected in the long run, never mind oblivious policemen.

At any rate, for a script supervisor, Melanie Orr shows promise as a director, and I hope she continues to pursue her craft; she just needs better material to sink her teeth into. "Harm's Way" is a nice calling card, and not a complete waste of viewing time, but could have been so much better. I'm unsurprised this went straight to video, but glad that I managed to catch up to it, despite its weaknesses. If you're not a fan of any of the actresses, however, it's pretty much dispensable.

Darlene (Ingrid Kavelaars) and her daughter Victoria (Hannah Lochner) are apparent victims of domestic violence. They go to a farm safe house run by Bea (Kathleen Quinlan) who is a bit quirky. The film introduces "fainting goats" who really don't faint, their legs just lock and they fall over.

The movie reveals a lot of clues that you know something is not right about Bea which is a good head fake for the ending. Yes, I liked the ending, it was just boring getting there.

Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.

Darlene(Ingrid Kavelaars) and her daughter Victoria(Hannah Lochner) are escaping the murder of an abusive husband, finding a refuge at the farm place of a lonely woman, Bea(Kathleen Quinlan) who offers them shelter and a home. Bea has a reputation for "taking in strays", those women who are running from someone or something. Bea doesn't ask who you are, or where you're from, the skeletons in the closet, the dirty little secrets mean nothing to her. Bea expects Darlene, as other runaways who have entered her nest, to help with the chores(manual labor on the farm), abandon cigarettes and alcohol, and decide to hide away the car so that no one will notice she is staying with her(which includes Bea getting to lock Darlene's keys up so she can't up and leave whenever she sees fit). Bea isn't the saint she might lead us to believe, though. There's mysterious banging coming from a barn Bea forbids Darlene and Vic from entering for any reason. What's the secret of the barn? Bea takes to Vic as a grandma would to a granddaughter. Bea could never have kids and seems content to remain without a man. If anything, Bea prefers the company of women(not necessarily saying that she's a lesbian but there is a fascinating scene where Bea tells Vic a story about LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD where the heroic woodman had nothing to do with saving her). But, Darlene doesn't adhere to Bea's rules. Darlene snoops inside the barn making a disturbing discovery. Darlene has been gulping liquor and taking a few quiet trips out at night to get a few hits from her Marlboros. And, chilled to the bone, Darlene attempts, albeit woefully, to pack up with Vic and leave, only to be disrupted by a deputy wanting to search Bea's home for missing girls that might be hiding somewhere in the farmhouse. To cap it all off, a disgruntled abusive husband is searching for the wife he victimizes, Matty. Who is Matty? If she had chosen Bea's place to hide out, where is she now? Slow moving thriller allowing Quinlan a chance to portray someone questionable. The entire running time, she seems enigmatic as if, despite her seemingly hospitable nature, she's hiding more than Darlene and Vic at her homestead. Darlene is portrayed as weak and barely-held-together, Vic, her daughter, however, is strong and bright, articulate and wise beyond her years. The murder of Darlene derived from a moment of panic because her husband, Vic's father, was a monster(in a flashback, we see this man hurling Darlene into objects such as the kitchen sink)in one of his abusive moments which could've resulted in more than a bruised eye. Most of the film, interesting enough, features the three female leads, men only showing up during brief moments throughout. Victoria's decision at the very end, in regards to her mother, is pretty eye-opening. Victoria has finally found a solace somewhere and her mother has interfered in her daughter's happiness. Victoria takes a stance many, I'm sure, will find quite shocking.

I have =personal= reasons for uprating this throw-away a notch. I met Kathleen many years ago in a "gang" we all ran in at the time. I was immediately aware that any inveigling notions I may have had were senseless. She was waaaaaaaaaaaaay too smart for a telegrapher like me.

Okay; personal stuff aside, Kathleen's interests at the time were no surprise given her early success in "...Rose Garden," and they continue to show up in her character choices (including the fascinating Patricia Kennealy in "The Doors."

In this one, we have a rather extreme version of a type of female I have seen a good dozen times in =less= extremity in real life. They are an intriguing -- and unfortunate -- sort of Stephen Karpman's (Google him, especially if you're a writer; you'll thank me) queens of the Drama Triangle.

Many of them see themselves as ex-Victims who want to be Rescuers but cannot for the life (or death) of them stop imitating those who Persecuted them when they were living in that awful "family of origin" and/or repeating their original trauma in their first three or four marriages.

And they would be merely =intriguing= if their Persecution didn't run to sadomasochistic stuff. The substance- and process-behavior-abuse, "sober-living" recovery and "safe house" world is full of these "Bea's."

No; I don't particularly like =them=, nor am I really jumping up and down about this film. The story would have been a lot more interesting if it lead us into the =real= world of battered women's sanctuaries (it's not always pretty), instead of this (cheesy) "illustrated novel" rendition thereof.

Many women =are= (actually) rescued there; but many others are Rescued, Persecuted and Victimzed by those who cannot help themselves.

Well, that was a little gem of a surprise ending.

Well, I guessed at a murder I mis-guessed at the perpetrator. ,Oh, but, then, when little Victoria started squeezing her eyes down a little bit, and started critical, and looking a little wiser beyond her years, I started to suspect that there may be more to this child than meets the eye.

I've kind of been there a little bit. meaning you're looking at the parent to do something about this mess that they've gotten themselves into and, therefore, you, too, and so you have to suffer. Yeah, you begin to resent that parent for making such stupid mistakes. And sometimes you may even contemplate murder to save everybody. So I totally get Victoria. And I totally get her decision-making. Time to save yourself from both parents. Makes almost wish this was a true story look a little heroine saving herself

Yeah, the Bea's of the world so busy trying to save others, yet too damaged themselves to actually do so and all they end up doing is victimizing victims. Physician heal thyself, before you can heal anyone else.

You don't get much background on Bea, but at one point the camera lingers on a photograph of about 6, presumably family members, all-female, all battleaxes, so there's a hint that somebody was abused back in the day.

Two extra stars for the satisfying ending.

Weak and vulnerable Darlene (a spot-on portrayal by Ingrid Kavelaars) and her sweet daughter Victoria (a fine and affecting performance by Hannah Lochner) seek refuge at an isolated rural safe house for abused women that's run by the strict and tough, but folksy and supportive Bea (splendidly played by Kathleen Quinlan). Things get dicey when Bea proves to be a total lunatic with an especially dangerous influence on the impressionable Victoria. Director Melanie Orr and screenwriter William Bell eschew cheap scares and excessive graphic gore to instead put a welcome and refreshing emphasis on the well-drawn characters and a quietly sinister atmosphere that becomes more increasingly creepy and unnerving as the story unfolds towards a chilling surprise conclusion which packs a powerful emotional punch right to the gut. Better still, the plot itself is firmly grounded in a thoroughly plausible everyday reality which in turn makes this picture even more potent and unsettling. Moreover, there's a disturbing and provocative subtext on female empowerment that's taken to a certain brutal, yet still logical extreme. The excellent acting from the top-notch cast rates as another significant asset: Quinlan is genuinely scary as one seriously crazy and twisted lady, Kavelaars and Lochner are equally impressive in their demanding roles, and David Sparrow contributes an engaging turn as amiable deputy Hallam. The crisp cinematography by Marcus Elliott and Brendan Steacy gives the film a bright sparkling look that neatly contrasts the grim subject matter. The spare and moody score by Eric Cadesky and Nick Dyer is subtle and effective without ever becoming obtrusive. Well worth seeing.