HARPOON Written and directed
Written and directed by Rob Grant
As the relaxing tones of Brett Gelman – Harpoon’s occasional narrator – waxes lyrical about the type of ‘friends’ we allow into our lives, a camera way up in the sky slowly rotates towards a cruiser ship in acres of open ocean. When the nose of the ship comes into focus we read the universal distress call SOS written in gaffer tape. Skipping back in time you are introduced to the dysfunctional trio who you’ll discover occupy that stranded vessel - poor and pathetic Jonah, striving, but struggling Sasha and her boyfriend, the spoilt, six-figure bank account owner Richard. Their three-way relationship now hangs by a thread, but it’s clear they have a lengthy, shared history - and now stay together out of duty and convenience. However, bitterness and suppressed resentment are soon coming to the surface.
It all starts to go wrong for them following Richard’s accusation that Jonah is sleeping with Sasha. A conclusion he has reached after he read a series of salacious texts on her phone. Turns out the playful, sexy innuendo was only about keeping Richard’s birthday present – a harpoon (or spear gun) – a surprise. Feeling suitability guilty for his violent out burst on Jonah’s face, Richard, as he has no doubt done in the past, turns to his bottomless wallet to keep the peace.
In short, it’s a fraught, suspenseful tale akin to DEAD CALM mixed with the bleak, sardonic wit and bloody mindedness of CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM.
He takes them out for the day on his boat as a way of apologising. From here, with Gelman’s ever-helpful additions to speed up the narrative, the dark truth of Richard, Sasha and Jonah’s love triangle and so much more is teased out into the open. It’s fun to watch each one of the anti-heroes’ internal house of cards collapsing in on themselves every time you think they’ve reached some moral high ground or impasse. The cruel twists are set up and paid off with aplomb by a great script, confident director stretching his low budget to the absolute limits and a talented cast working in perfect harmony.
In short, it’s a fraught, suspenseful tale akin to DEAD CALM mixed with the bleak, sardonic wit and bloody mindedness of CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM.
HARPOON will be available exclusively on the ARROW VIDEO CHANNEL on Amazon Prime Video & Apple TV from 18th October, with a wider Home Entertainment release including Blu-ray planned for early 2020.
