Good Dick (www.the-usher.com)

When a lonely but interesting girl (Palka) comes into his video shop to rent adult videos, he (Ritter) can't help but be intrigued. Deciding to follow her home, he discovers that she lives alone and just watches the videos every night, so he makes up a story so they can meet. He is just as alone as her you she but little does he know that she really doesn't want to make friends but he is determined not to give up.

Independent film can be the breakout for many a talented actor, director or writer but can 'Good Dick' be that step into the big time?

Scottish filmmaker Marianna Palka's debut as a writer and a director is a fine example of what independent film is all about. A hot bed of creativity and imagination, the indie scene has produced some of the great filmmakers of the last twenty or thirty years and it is a great place to start a career and for Marianna is a decent first attempt but only just.

This is the story of a boy and a girl, both have been switched off from the world but for very different reasons. The boy has fallen on hard times, having to live in his car and struggle to get any money together but he thinks he may have found a solution. The girl has hidden herself away from the world in an apartment paid for by her father. She wiles away her time in bed and watching pornographic movies and only venturing out to get new DVDs. This is where the boy and girl meet but while she might not be looking for a relationship, he definitely is. In what can only be described as stalking, he follows her home, lies to get in her building and then makes up a tale that will try and make her sympathetic to him. While she is reluctant at first, the two strike up a strange and unlikely friendship.

With the two main characters not even having names, with Marianna Palka herself playing girl and the son of the late, great John Ritter, Jason Ritter playing the boy, there is a strange chemistry between the two. Both are clearly talented actors but the shortcomings of Palka's own script and character development, neither of these characters are very appealing. The supporting cast have little to do and even some short cameos from Tom Arnold and Bryce Dallas Howard can really make you care much about the story or the characters involved.

You have to applaud an artist for bringing a story she wrote and directed to the silver screen and 'Good Dick' does show some potential. What is needed however, especially in independent cinema, is more attention to character development and storyline as this is what draws an audience in and unfortunately for Marianna Palka's 'Good Dick' doesn't really have this.

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2008