3 ½ stars
While the rest of the cinematic universe seems bent on using every CGI trick in the book to make their movies “events,” writer/director Ted Geoghegan (Mohawk) has taken a much different approach to his new film, Brooklyn 45. Instead of trying to build eye-popping worlds filled with adventure, he gives viewers a single room in a Brooklyn brownstone filled with heart-palpitating tension. Instead of costumed heroes, he gives us a group of old friends. Instead of spectacle, he gives us thrills and chills on a believable human scale.
Instead of the bombast of just another summer popcorn movie, Geoghegan delivers a film you can enjoy for years to come.
In Brooklyn 45, a group of WWII veterans gather at the home of former comrade Lt. Col. Clive Hockstatter (Larry Fessenden) for what they think is a night to have a few drinks and reminisce. Hockstatter has a different agenda. Still emotionally crushed by the recent suicide of his wife, he has invited them to help him hold a seance so he can communicate with her and find out why she did what she did.
What separates Brooklyn 45 from other scary seance movies is the pacing, which makes the action feel like it is happening in real-time. Using a few well-placed jump scares and tasteful special effects, Geoghegan sets the hook into his audience and reels them.
As critical as the director’s pacing is to the film’s success, Brooklyn 45 also features a superb cast who create believable, three-dimensional characters you care about (even if you don’t like them) within the film’s 92-minute running time. And they do it without any silly nonsense about who the star is or whose movie it is; their work is the definition of an ensemble. Each has their moment in front of the camera, a scene where you hang on to their every word and gesture searching for the key to discover how they fit into the plot. And pay attention because none are there just to move the story along.
When it comes time to use special effects to make the spirit world of Brooklyn 45 come alive, Geoghegan again shows a lot of restraint. With the possible exception of a clunky scene where the room door opens to reveal a shocking image from one of the guest’s past, the effects are all there to support the story, not take it over. And if you look closely, it’s not the effect that makes these scenes work; it’s the actor’s reaction to the thing they couldn’t even see when the cameras were rolling.
