Beyond the Reach
Director: Jean-Baptiste Léonetti
Stars: Michael Douglas, Jeremy Irvine, Martin Palmer
Duration: 91 mins
Class: 12
Eden Cinemas Release
Ben (Jeremy Irvine) is a young tracker living in a trailer somewhere in Southwest America with his girlfriend Laina (Hanna Mangan Lawrence). The film opens with the couple at a crossroads – she is about to start college, and he frets that she will seek greener pastures away from him once she experiences college life.
After an awkward goodbye, Ben heads off to the Sheriff’s station to meet a client. Ben has been hired by Madec (Michael Douglas), a rich and powerful corporate type who is hunting for a bighorn sheep to add to his collection.
The two set off through the desert landscape, where an unexpected and tragic accident pits Ben against Madec in what becomes a fierce and ultimately violent battle of wills. Ben becomes the prey, hunted by an increasingly desperate Madec and he must use his skills to escape from Madec and his deadly weapons.
Beyond the Reach, directed by Jean Baptiste Leonetti with a screenplay by Stephen Susco, was developed by Douglas’s production company for him to star in. While on paper it may have looked like a thrilling, modern western with two protagonists from opposite ends of the social spectrum slugging it out, the final product is a rather underwhelming thriller which offers preposterous storytelling, instead of actual thrills as it plods towards its unsurprising outcome.
The story dictates that Douglas and Irvine are on screen most of the time and the characters could have done with a little more fleshing out. They are not necessary bad performances, yet they are both lacking in nuance. Michael Douglas effortlessly embodies the macho, big city corporate player whose dictum is clearly “money can buy anything” as is illustrated by his elaborately equipped souped-up truck complete with microwave oven, coffee machine, martinis, satellite phone and all other comforts one needs for outdoor living. Douglas certainly boasts the sneer and swagger of one of his signature characters, Gordon Gekko in Wall Street but the script allows him none of his depth.
Douglas’s villainous turn kind of overshadows Irvine’s rather meek character and the latter struggles to add some meat to the bones of his part - although he does get to show some pretty nifty survival skills as he wanders across the desert landscape in the blazing and unforgiving heat in nothing but his well-fitting jockeys as he tries to evade the increasingly deranged Madec.
Had the story been less concerned with clichés and higher on the tensions and the characters a little bit more interesting, Beyond the Reach would have been that much more enjoyable. Thankfully, it looks astonishing, the harsh desert backdrop a blazing landscape of bright blue skies and dusty orange sand, the heat relentlessly shimmering off the surface. It creates the perfect atmosphere, which sadly the filmmakers do not exploit at all.