Transparency (I) (2010) User Reviews

For a low-budget movie, not at all bad.

[dtander-1 · 6/10 · 13 May 2012]

Despite its obvious low budget, and some weak writing, I thought this was a pretty good movie. The plot is a little contrived and some character development could have been handled better but overall I found it worth my time to watch. If anything, I'm impressed the movie did so much with so little.

Lou Diamond Phillips is a solid performer, and I didn't find much to criticize even with the supporting and bit players. It wasn't as highly charged as the typical Hollywood effort (I'm thinking of TAKEN here...a movie with a vaguely similar theme and plot) but instead it had a more documentary feel that contributed to my willingness to overlook some plot holes.

"Transparency"

[jonathanruano · 6/10 · 22 August 2011]

"Transparency" is a modern day conspiracy theory film whose plot is a lot more interesting than its characters. Take just the first 15-20 minutes. Like many great films, "Transparency" begins with the mundane. A middle-aged security guard David (Lou Diamond Phillips) goes to work and then, after a long day, double checks the vehicles that went in and out of the building with his buddy Reg (Aaron Pearl). David notices an inconsistency. It could be nothing. But instead he makes a terrifying discovery. This plot twist leads to several others until David is in way over his head.

The best part about this film are the plot twists and the ending, which avoid the familiar clichés of Hollywood endings. The movie is called "Transparency" because that is what David, the hero, is searching for. But as in real life, discovering the true villains and the truth becomes almost impossible. Only in Hollywood films are all wrongs set to right and all answers provided. This film is not afraid to avoid giving anything away.

Yet at the same time, "Transparency" has significant weaknesses. David's back story, which comes across as contrived and absurd, could have been left out completely. David did not need to be a troubled guy with issues. He could have been the ordinary guy who unwittingly gets himself into a lot of trouble and the film would have still worked. The other problem are the action scenes. David is middle-aged, but apparently he can dodge firing machine guns and beat up Mafiosos. Finally, the performances throughout this film were, with the exception of Lou Diamond Phillips, well below par. The Russian villains were little more than caricatures. Estella Warren (known for her performance as the love interest in "Planet of the Apes") seems like a struggling actress who has shown up on set to collect her pay cheque. Her performance is largely contrived. The American villains are surprisingly boring, including the middle-aged lawyer Danielle (Deborah Kara Unger) who seems to be asleep throughout most of this picture. As a rule, villains have to be unstable, sadistic, and have sharp intellects to be terrifying. But unfortunately none of the villains come close to this standard. In fact, the best villains in this movie are the ones that cannot be seen, like the big corporate executives and maybe powerful figures inside the federal government.

In conclusion, reviewing this film presents a interesting challenge. On the one hand, the story line was entertaining throughout most of the film. Yet, I had the feeling too that I was seeing a low budget indie film with cheap sets and a gloomy atmosphere. But worst of all, the characters did not interest me or inspire any sympathy from me, not least because the actors delivered poor performances. So it was a very close call, but in the end a very marginal thumbs up. This film is worth seeing solely for its unusual plot because it simply has nothing else to offer. 5.7/10

Uninspired movie about human trafficking. Acting is so bad I didn't care about the missing girls. I felt bad about that. I say C

[cosmo_tiger · 5/10 · 16 May 2011]

What would you do to expose the truth? When a security guard (Phillips) stumbles on a woman that is part of a human trafficking ring he tries to save her. When she goes missing he devotes everything he has to find her. This is another hard movie to review. It was very, very flat and a little boring through most of it. The last 20 min picked up and the final 5 min will make you so mad that you will want to know how much they are saying is true. The acting is not that good and if there ever was a movie that makes you feel little or no connection to the characters, this is it. The subject matter is hard to deal with, and again the ending will infuriate you to the point of wanting to throw something at the TV. This is a movie I would not recommend, but the ending is so powerful that you should watch for the ending if nothing else. Hard to sit through, but worth it. Because of the ending...I give it a C.

Would I watch again? - No, I would not. But if someone else is watching it I would want to see their reaction to the ending.

*Also try - Elephant White & Out Of Reach

Lou Diamond Badass,he's as ugly and real as Brunson

[suissenavy · 31 October 2010]

This is a great throwback action film, like the Death Wish series and Dirty Harry, however as there is not as much killing, making it modern and believable. There are elements of the one man army Rambo/Commando psychology, but not silly and you sense genuine fear from Lou's character. The plot is easy to follow, a security guard finds a trafficked Serbian girl and relates saving her to the loss of his daughter to a rapist while he was a cop. Everything seemed strong and engaging, the style of dialog is natural and well suited to the players. I would say that this is a great film to get into. Always great to feel old if you remember Young Guns.....Oh and Young Guns 2.

Lou Diamond Phillips LOOKS good, but...

[Gladys_Pym · 3/10 · 27 March 2011]

But the film just doesn't really work.

Trafficking? Well, maybe they don't have that in the US, which would explain why everyone's amazed that it happens, but here in the UK you wouldn't really get the amazement from everyone that this film offers.

I'm left, a couple of days after seeing this film, with just a vague sense of disappointment. It somehow just doesn't quite get there. I mean, it sort of works, and Lou's try at a comeback works - for him. It's just the whole premise, and the MASSIVE corporation that he somehow upsets, that seem just too far fetched. Bits of the film were gritty, and immediate, and I think the plot should have stayed with these, instead of turning the story into a David v Goliath conspiracy fest.

3 out of 10. I'm glad I didn't watch this with anyone else. I'd certainly have had to defend the decision to go and spend money on it.

LDP LOOKING FOR HOOKERS

[nogodnomasters · 4/10 · 7 June 2019]

***PLOT SYNOPSIS*** I wouldn't call them spoilers as the movie was too bad to spoil. Dave (Lou Diamond Phillips) daughter is raped. His wife blames him and leaves him. Dave takes a job as a security guard who sleeps with co-eds. During an inspection he discovers a human trafficking ring and mass murder in the back of a semi and a girl Anja (Anja Savcic) speaking Serbian. There is a shoot out with the driver. After LDP wakes up in a private hospital he is asked to sign a statement...What girls? No one has seen any girls. In the back of the semi? Really?

LDP, using his Iraq training manages to subdue a man guarding him, escape from the care facility, break into his own home and avoid capture without busting a stitch from a bullet hole in his chest. It appears local law enforcement is involved in the cover up. Now at this point I contact the FBI, Justice Department, Immigration, and the state attorney general's office. Instead LDP goes to a local woman's shelter where he meets Monika (Estella Warren) who hooks him up with women who had been involved in the slave trade. LDP goes to the brothel where Eastern European women are forced into prostitution and plays 20 questions with one of the girls. LDP fights his way out, people die, he is shot at and stabbed. After being shot and stabbed he decides to take on the Russian mafia and the law enforcement people who help them all to save Anya. After watching Liam Neeson rescue his daughter, LDP is a let down.

In the middle of his "walking tall" quest LDP decides to have an awkward reunion with his wife and daughter. The ending attempts to make a statement in order to make up for a bad movie.

Nudity, F-bomb

Film about sex trade fails to enlighten

[anthonyandsandy · 5/10 · 16 September 2011]

This film wasn't half bad(some of it really was)but all in all it was a movie that meant well, but fell apart at some of the scenes. Like David(Lou Diamond Phillips)goes to a woman's shelter that has signs posted in clear view that say "Absolutely No Men" however when he comes back later to check and see if anyone else is around, he checks the mens washroom?? I did not know what to think of this film although I did notice right away near the end of the film he has a moment with his other daughter , they shot it in "Marina's Gelato" on 224th street here in Maple Ridge. Also to confirm the location when they shoot Lou in this scene outside across the street is Cash Canada(closed and for sale)

This was about the sex trade industry however it was another Die Hard film where it is he against the rest of the world where EVERYONE is corrupt.The ending did not sum anything up at all as the previous writer mentioned. Their take on it also is just that, their trying to make something out of nothing.The sex trade industry has been going on for years, does not make it right but it just gave them a topic to shoot a movie.In the end all the people that tried to end this industry either ended up dead or in jail, that the kind of hope we want to leave the viewer with?If someone helps it had better be more than one man taking on yet another army of heavily armed men,he is a security guard they make no mention of him receiving any further training in arms or fighting but yet he takes them all down.

Lou Diamond Philips is back! ....

[cheeftanz · 7/10 · 20 January 2012]

I was wondering where LDP went a couple of years ago, and suddenly *and oddly* he keeps on popping up in after midnight movies...

But I really, really want LDP to get back on the mainstream circuit... and even to a spot where he finds his niche. Psycho badass? Yea, he got game! A gay rodeo clown? OK. He could pull that off.. corrupt mid level CIA operative in Moldova with a cocaine habit? Sure.. with the right vehicle I KNOW he can do well. I am rooting for his success (I did not know I was this much of a fan - heee).

This movie was flat, fine. But it was great seeing LDP kick some buttock! There also was a nice exchange between him and the corporate lawyer that developed satisfyingly. And a few great personal moments where the reactions of the actors to each other was very personal... nice interplay. LDP looks good, it was free on HDTV... and with a bowl of ice cream and the cat I must give this film a very solid 7 for personal entertainment value.

Charles Bronson IS Taxi Driver

[bemyfriend-40184 · 6/10 · 16 September 2021]

As my title says, it's Taxi Driver and every Charles Bronson movie. Still, it's worth watching. The ending, although sad, is crazy good. No good deed goes unpunished; and all the heroes of the film, get the bad guys just desserts. You can't fight city hall. Or evil. And get away with it. Except for Anya. She finds a baseball diamond. Because that's the star's name, and he was a diamond. Or something. Anyways, six stars.

An Okay Film Defined by an Incredible Ending.

[alansmithee12 · 9/10 · 30 July 2012]

SPOILERS AHEAD

What is it that makes a film good? Is it the acting? Is it the story? Is it the setting? Is it the twists and the turns? Perhaps it's the ability the film has to be original. Or what about the message it leaves with the audience?

Transparency may not be the most original film ever conceived (human trafficking is by now a mainstream topic), but I've always been of the belief that a film, like any story, is a sum of its parts. With that considered, Transparency packs a surprisingly powerful punch, especially for a film made of only half a million dollars.

I first watched this movie over a month ago on the movie network and to be honest, I wasn't sure at first why I liked it- I just knew I did. Like a good piece of music, sometimes not being able to instantly define why you like it is what makes it worthwhile. As such, I had to watch it again a few times to figure out what was it was about the film that worked so well for me. Eventually, a few different things came through.

1- The acting. LDP acts his butt off in this film. At every turn Phillips is able to convey a great sense of depth and pain as he interacts with both the people and facts that his world is revealed to be made up of. Special props also have to go to Deborah Kara Unger for her portrayal of the corporation's emotionless envoy to David. Despite a complaint from one viewer who seemed to think she should have played herself as a two dimensional James Bond villain, I would argue the deadpan flatness of her character was what made her so menacing.

2- The action. Every scene is quite fast paced and rough, and yet the film is able to move beyond your typical shoot em up action shows because it is able to communicate a sense of authenticity.

3- The ending. Quite simply, Transparency has one of the most hard hitting endings I have ever seen. There are a bunch of different elements that come together for this- including the acting, the scene editing, the background voice of the corporation's spokesperson and the vagueness of the men in black (all of which were done so expertly it was astounding)- but special credit has to be given to the writer, director and especially whoever wrote the score. Never under estimate the power of music to influence our perception of events that are occurring. The calmness of the score (and the beauty of it) is such a sharp 180 degree turn from what we're used to throughout the show that it literally creates a completely different setting for the audience to perceive even though the characters are physically still in the same area. When coupled with the writer and director's brilliant refusal to allow the movie to fall into a Hollywood cliché, the ending is able to seal the movie beautifully.

Now, that being said, is it perfect? No, it's not. While the script is certainly passable, I didn't find it to be anything special(save for the back and forth between Phillips and Unger right near the end of the movie which was fantastic), and the introduction recall scenes seemed poorly placed, edited and introduced, giving the first few minutes of the film a bit of a "B movie feel". Also the amount of bullets LDP seems to dodge, or at least survive, during the middle section of the movie is a little bit out there. However, and thankfully, these minor things don't manage to take away from the overall feel of the movie.

Which leads me to another topic I want to touch on.

I've read a few other reviews calling the movie contrived while, at the same time, comparing it to Taken and Die Hard. While everyone is entitled to their opinion, I can't say I agree with the ones that have been expressed here. There are certainly elements of both films (given the whole sex trafficking topic and gun battles) but, this is not your typical Hollywood shoot em up film. Which makes it all the more odd to me that a criticism like "contrived" would be applied to Transparency (save for the first few minutes of the film). After all, the good guy most likely- even though we don't see it- dies at the end of the film. Most of the people he even comes into contact with are rounded up, jailed or killed. There is no happy ending or reunification for 'most' of the protagonists, and the antagonist is not defeated. There are, however, two things provided- hope and a message. Even though the bad guys are not bested, the protagonist is just barely able to sneak through a win. I almost get the feeling like Inglis and Kelly wanted to revisit the old idea that victory is not necessarily measured by survival, but sometimes through something more intangible- sacrifice. Going back again to the ending, LDP, Inglis, Kelly and the composer deliver that message with such grace and ferocity that I was both shocked and dumbfounded at the same time.

It is David VS Goliath, but done with realism and pragmatism. When all is said and done, you're not really sure who has won and who has lost. If that's what goes for contrived these days, I need to see more films.

If you're looking for Hollywood endings, and hugs and kisses, go watch something else. If you're looking for something realistic, yet not entirely without hope at the end, and is able to provide a worthwhile message to the audience, you'll want to watch this.

Definitely doesn't deserve as low a rating as it has right now.

Better than I thought

[bellkendra-09994 · 7/10 · 25 August 2021]

This movie was a lot better than I thought it would be. Human trafficking is a major crime that has taken over the world and there never seems to be enough people to help bring it down. We'll done, Lou Diamond Philips! You still got it.