(Canada, 88 min.)
Dir. Teach Grant, Writ. Dean
Wray, Teach Grant
Starring: Dean Wray, Tantoo
Cardinal, Martin Cummins, Rebecca James, Teach Grant
The gritty drama Down Here takes audiences to the dark
underbelly of Vancouver’s Eastside. Beneath the sprawling mass of ugly,
towering condominiums sits a lost character of the city. Hidden, forgotten, and
overlooked citizens survive in the shadows, and this film by Teach Grant
explores how the unseen members of society are often the most vulnerable ones.
One such overlooked Vancouverite is Skye (Rebecca James, innocent and compelling in a pivotal role), a runaway who works the streets just to get by. Few people notice her, except for the random johns who pick get up (even then she's invisible), but she catches the eye of Detective Roy Harris (Dean Wray, who also gets a credit as co-writer). Harris is a weary man plagued by his own demons--alcoholism and guilt cripple him--and he sees in Skye the young girl he lost and couldn't save.
Down Here puts this relationship between
the detective and the girl in jeopardy when the police begin receiving awful
snuff films from an anonymous predator creeping on women in the Vancouver sex
trade and subjecting them to fates worthy of bargain bin torture porn. Nobody
in the department seems to care except for Harris and his partner, Brown
(Martin Cummins, a fine ally for both Harris and the viewer), and the pair sets
out into the night, tailing girls and finding leads, and ultimately using Skye
as bait for their perp. Harris’s relationship with Skye blurs the line between
his roles as an officer and a father, and his interest in the case becomes
dangerously personal.
The mystery of the unseen wolf
offers a catalyst for exploring the lives of marginalized citizens like Skye
who inhabit areas like Vancouver’s Eastside. Harris, for example, receives the
aid of one transperson named Yvonne (played by director Teach Grant), who, like
Skye, helps put a human face on the people who inhabit the streets. If Down Here never really satisfies as a
thriller—the mystery generally serves as a thematic device or even
afterthought—it does a very good job of representing life on the streets and of
giving screentime to alternative voices. The gritty, yet complete image of
Vancouver goes beyond the scenic Rockies and the urban skyline, and the striking,
steely cinematography by Adam Myhill gives life, energy, and menace to the
range of shadows that populate the film.
The film also provides notable
onscreen representation for Aboriginal actors with Tantoo Cardinal (Maïna) offering a friend for Harris in her
character Stella when he takes her grandson, Nick, under his wing. Nick
provides for Harris what he struggles to find in Skye: namely, a chance to atone
for his past by putting another youth on a straight path. Cardinal is a welcome
presence, and she provides a flickering of warmth and kindness amongst the grit
and bleakness of Down Here’s moral
struggles. Wray is strong as he grapples with Harris’s flaws, portraying a
morally and ethically conflicted man who wants to be the lone knight to protect
his vulnerable neighbours, but can’t keep his own demons in check. The film
builds a moral abyss as Harris spirals downward, but Down Here is ultimately hopeful in the end as the renegade cop
looks to the light.
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Down Here screens in Vancouver at the Rio Theatre
on April 17th and it will be available on iTunes and DVD beginning
April 21st.
