DVD Loves Her Gun

If you are of a certain age, it may be difficult to watch Geoff Marslett's "Loves Her Gun" without thinking of "Death Wish." No, this isn't another one of those films about a gun-toting vigilante who goes gunning for thugs and creeps who are turning the city into a vortex of fear and paranoia. Actually, it comes off more or less the way "Death Wish" might have played out in real life. That classic Charles Bronson film was mounted on the idea of one man avenging his family after a vicious attack by walking down dark alleys at night looking for the human scum. This one is more about the reality that follows a person who has been the victim of violent crime. The vigilante route is tempted but never exacted.

"Loves Her Gun" opens with a beautiful young woman named Allie (Trieste Kelly Dunn) who lives a sheltered life in a her Brooklyn neighborhood. Her life is so uneventful that she feels comfortable walking home at 1:30 in the morning by herself without an escort. Without warning, she is attacked by two men wearing animal masks. They steal her purse and, for no other reason, beat her senseless. The only words exchanged come from one of the criminals who informs his victim that the only reason he doesn't rape her is that he's not in the mood. The police aren't any help. Sarah becomes paranoid and decides to move far away, to Austin Texas where, naturally, she buys a gun.

What is so original about "Loves Her Gun" is the way in which director Geoff Marslett fixes the film so firmly in Allie's point of view. In a lesser film, it might have become some boring potboiler in which the police refuse to help and the muggers come gunning for our hero. None of that. What's interesting is that even though the story moves Allie 1700 miles from Brooklyn, New York to Austin, Texas, the defenselessness and paranoia still reside. She locks doors at night, she's leery of strangers. She sticks close to friends. We are there with her. We feel her closed in world, and we become as suspicious as she does of anyone or anything that looks out of place.

This is not an action film, filled with heavy plot elements. It is about a specific person whose life is rocked by random events. The fascination comes from the performance of newcomer Trieste Kelly Dunn. She's beautiful, but she's not far from anyone you've ever met. Allie leads an unfocused, directionless life and must come to terms with the implications of a terrible ordeal. We see the stages of her trauma from strong-hearted victim to emotional train-wreck to a woman putting the pieces back together. What comes of her journey is not as sour and down-beat as you might think. In fact, it ends of a rather positive note. Unlike "Death Wish," this is a movie about a very specific person and the very specific event that turns her life around.

***1/2 (of four)