A Good Alibi
The setup is simple enough. A husband exacts revenge on the man who murdered his wife. Been there before, right? But what if the guy who murdered her did so as an accident?
That’s the question the detective on case (Sandra Inezz) has to contemplate as the husband (Geoffrey Stephenson) tries to elude them.
“A Good Alibi,” written and directed by Geoffrey Stephenson, is a good story, well told. The film- which is available for viewing online at www.agoodalibi.com- looks like it was made on commercial video equipment (I should know; my own in-production short “Unwinnable Hand” has a similar no-budget look), but that’s not a criticism but an observation. It ultimately comes down to the story, as it should.
And Stephenson- with some interesting (and oddly beautiful) touches in store by the end- has a good one up his sleeve, as Jerry Stewart tries to get away with his crime. We see him drive out to Vegas- not a short trip- and spend some time in his hotel, including smoking some pot he stole from the scene. The performances are a bit rough around the edges in terms of line readings, making the film feel a bit uncomfortable at times (a psychobabble run between the detectives after their first housecall to Jerry in particular hits some of the the wrong notes), but the story keeps things interesting.
This is more than just a murder investigation, though- it’s a study of a man who is trying to put his life together after his wife’s death (seven years after, but still). There’s more to this guy than that, though; the psychobabble does have a point to the story, and giving us insight into Jerry’s life and worldview. We also see him dating a cute girl (Lubi Boutdy) he met online- a long interlude that almost makes us forget about the murder investigation…
…Almost forget- Stephenson has a twist up his sleeve that takes things in a very different, and somewhat cruel, direction. I say cruel only because how the police try to investigate him further feels questionable ethically and tragic given Jerry’s clear emotional unbalance.
Still, you get what you deserve in movieland, and even more tragic is the fact that Jerry ultimately couldn’t move on from his wife’s death, and accept it as the unfortunate accident that it was.
