Waterborne - **

Directed by Ben Rekhi. Starring Christopher Masterson, Jake Muxworthy, Jon Gries, Ajay Naidu, Mageina Tovah, Shabana Azmi, Noah Segan. USA, 2005, cert 15, 78 mins.

Released on DVD by 20/20 on August the 15th

Waterborne is a 2005 film from the US that exploring the potential effects of a chemical agent contaminating Los Angeles’ water supply. Writer/director Ben Rekhi tries to examine this by using the now quite familiar convention of setting up seemingly discrete storylines which unexpectedly converge (like Paul Haggis’ CRASH). In this case we follow Zach (MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE’s Masterson) and his drug dealing flatmate Bodi (Muxworthy, recently seen in Federico Zampaglione’s SHADOW) as they cruise around trying to find uncontaminated water. National guardsman Ritter (Gries) trying keep a lid on public order offences. American-Sikh Vikram (Naidu) as he tries to deal with his domineering mother raising the mark up on water in her store, and her disapproval over his relationship with a Jewish girl (SPIDERMAN 2’s Tovah).

The focus of the film is on these three soap-opera storylines rather than on any thriller element. The exact nature of the terrorist threat is not revealed until late in the storyline, and has very little bearing on events. Perhaps due to the micro budget there is no real sense of growing public disorder and panic and crucially the effects of the chemical threat are never seen, there are no scenes in hospital wards, no one is seen to be sick or grow sick. If ever a film cried out for Kiefer Sutherland to pull a gun on someone and scream “don’t make me threaten you” it’s this one.

Although competently shot and acted, WATERBORNE lacks any excitment, and the cast are given some truly atrocious dialogue to deliver. Even at 78 minutes the film outstays its welcome and feels like a film school project.

Stuart Barr.

GORE IN THE STORE
REVIEWS BY FANS FOR FANS
5 STAR FAB - 1 STAR RUBBISH