By George & Josh Bate
Two thieves undertake their final, high-profile heist by targeting a wealthy philanthropist who is out for the evening. What could go wrong?
That’s the jumping off point for Misdirection, an intense and contained thriller from director Kevin Lewis (Willy’s Wonderland). The HoloFiles recently had the opportunity to speak with Lewis and star/producer Oliver Trevena (The Gorge, Plane) about their new movie, the pacing of a great thriller, what it was like to work in a single location with a limited cast, how crafting a thriller is distinct from creating a horror movie, and more.
Misdirection stars Olga Kurylenko (Black Widow, Quantum of Solace) as Sara and Oliver Trevena as Jason, a couple and pair of thieves who embark on a final high-end heist. Their target is David Blume, played by Frank Grillo (Superman, Avengers: Endgame), a wealthy philanthropist, whose home Sara and Oliver target on a seemingly quiet evening. Much to the surprise of Oliver (and possibly Sara), David comes home early from a charitable event, forcing the duo to take him hostage as they figure out their next steps. Over the course of a long night, the couple’s trust in one another is pushed to its limits as David manipulates them and Oliver begins to suspect that Sara is hiding something.
Although sporting a runtime under 90 minutes, Misdirection takes its time with calculated pacing that evokes the flow of iconic Hitchcockian thrillers of the past. “That’s old school movie-making, right?” Lewis reflected. “It’s a slow burn. The whole thing is: you’ve got to set up these characters and set up the world that they’re in and then you let it go – the idea of the clock and real time and the events that are going to unfold, but we need to set that up….You really got to get knowing who these characters are because, once they get at each other, they start levelling up. And then you start cranking [up] the tension.”
Misdirection certainly cranks up the tension as it invites the audience in on a compelling mystery to ponder. Did Sara (Kurylenko’s character) purposefully botch this heist so that she could use it as an opportunity to kill Frank Grillo’s David? Or was this all a big mistake and Sara is eager to kill David merely to ensure the safety of her and her partner? David certainly leans toward the former answer, planting seeds of doubt in the ear of Trevena’s Jason that begin to fracture his trust in Sara.
As a result of a mystery that positions Jason in between Sara and David as two opposing forces, Trevena serves as the audience’s point-of-view throughout the film, with an admirable moral compass to guide him through a difficult dilemma. For Trevena, playing this unique role reflected the kind of pull and confusion we as human beings face everyday. “Whether it’s a relationship, whether it’s a business, I think we’re always being pulled in different directions,” Trevena said. “There’s so much unknown, especially in today’s world and the media and everything else. What is real, right?”
Trevena continued, “For Jason, it’s tough because he’s with this woman that he really loves and, out of nowhere, he realizes that the future isn’t going to be what he thought or what he dreamed of. And then he’s going to deal with a real situation in real time to [survive] at that point. It’s the twists and turns – I think that’s what keeps it interesting. You really don’t know how it’s going to go, right? And then you think you do know how it’s going and it doesn’t go that way either.”
Like many great thrillers, Misdirection contains its narrative to a single setting. “The whole thing was building the world in the house,” Lewis stated. “And I love Michael Mann and Hitchcock and everything.”
The contained setting creates a cozy viewing experience for the audience, but the film’s production was far from cozy. “Cozy, definitely wouldn’t be the word that I would use,” Trevena said. “It was December and it was in Serbia. It was absolutely freezing. And we were in a house that was all glass, And obviously, with the nature of a production, you can’t keep the doors shut so people crews are coming in and out. So, definitely didn’t feel cozy.”
But I will say there was something nice about the fact of producing a movie that took place in one location,” Trevena remarked. “It came with its challenges, but it was also just great in the way that we knew where we were going to be every day. There was none of this set up. There was no, ‘Oh, we predicted an hour to get to set and it’s now two hours’ and people would get lost and you got different crews going to different base camps. It took a lot of that confusion away and that noise, which definitely made it more comfortable, I would say, instead of cozy, comfortable.”
As an independent film, production was a tight turn around for Trevena and Lewis. “We shot this entire movie in 15 nights,” Trevena said, “which I think is a testament to Kevin [Lewis]….The struggles that come with an independent film – you don’t have the luxury of being able to go over, you don’t have the luxury of extra crew when you need them. So, it was really a journey of blood, sweat, and tears across the board for everyone.”
For director Lewis, Misdirection marked a departure from some of his recent efforts, which have largely been horror movies. His horror-comedy Willy’s Wonderland, for instance, followed Nicolas Cage as he faced off against murderous animatronic mascots possessed by the souls of a cannibalistic killer. If it wasn’t clear already, Misdirection is very different from that. “To me in this industry, we get typecast,” Lewis reflected. “So everybody says, ‘Oh, you did Willy’s Wonderland so you do horror-comedy.’ Well, there’s a lot of range for me and this was exciting….Oliver [Trevena] does a lot of action movies and bringing me into that world that’s what I wanted. I wanted a challenge…There’s a lot of range for artists and filmmakers out there. I felt that this story really was able to stretch that [for me].”
Lewis nailed the challenge he speaks of as he, Trevena, and company crafted a suspenseful, tight-wound home-invasion thriller with Misdirection. Fans of classic Hitchcock films will enjoy the cozy atmosphere, contained setting, and psychological cat-and-mouse game between three warring parties.
Misdirection is available on Digital 2/10 from Cineverse
