Impact Point - Review
Despite it being officially sanctioned by its presence in the Olympic Games, the sport of women’s beach volleyball has always struggled for credibility. The obvious erotic appeal of tanned, young, athletic women in skimpy bikini’s working up a sweat has always counted against it as a serious endeavour. So it is perhaps no surprise that Impact Point (Hayley Cloake, 2008), which is set within the world of women’s beach volleyball, plays up the titillating angle of the sport by fetishising the hot bods of the young cast. What may be surprising is that the director of this film is a woman. Yet, the action in the sand is merely a minor player in the film.
Impact Point is a thriller that focuses on the terror of stalking and how it completely affects the victim’s life, physically, psychologically and emotionally. The concept of the stalker as villain is familiar in film, perhaps best exemplified in The Fan (1996) which also coupled sport (baseball) with the derangement of an obsessive admirer. Impact Point works at a lower level with a smaller budget, but it still manages to succeed as a study of the psychology of obsession.
The film opens with a pumping soundtrack as the camera swoops in over the luminously blue Pacific ocean where it kisses the sunny beaches of California (where else!). It is here that we meet Kelly Reyes (Melissa Keller) doing battle in the final of a women’s doubles beach volleyball tournament. Kelly and her team-mate eventually succumb to rival Jen (Kayla Ewell) and her partner, the loss all the more galling for the series of verbal jibes that Kelly and Jen have directed at each other. Shortly after the bitter match, circumstance conspire to unite Kelly and Jen, there professional relationship beginning with mutual acrimony. The coupling becomes even more strained when it seems Kelly is receiving more public attention, chiefly from a famous columnist named Holden (Brian Austin Green). However, as always, things are not quite all they seem. Soon Kelly has a crazed stalker on her hands and her worlds, both professional and personal, start to crumble.
Though the narrative of Impact Point is predictable, it wisely moves along at a rapid pace to ensure the audience is not left to linger too long on the plotting. The villain is established early and from this point the movie settles into its typical thriller set-pieces while holding out the question to the audience: how will Kelly thwart this psycho? As the plot becomes more convoluted many of the twists are never explained and the performances start to waver under the pressure of a story that is faltering. Yet, as if on cue, the final act quickly arrives to reduce the situation to a her-versus-him fight to the death. Most viewers will predict the outcome of that battle. An unfortunate side-effect of the efficient narrative is the perfunctory manner in which the volleyball is dealt with. Given the sport’s regrettable lack of credibility, Impact Point had a unique opportunity to showcase some of beach volleyball’s more involved elements, such as tactics, strategy and skill.
Hayley Cloake treats the volleyball scenes much in the same way she treats the rest of the film, with rapid cutting and an ever present musical score. The music works well on occasion but in some of the more intimate scenes the dialogue is drowned out by the volume of the background score. Cloake approaches the film as a genre piece and she follows the typical design of the thriller movie. However, she has managed to infuse the narrative and its presentation with some sly reflexive commentary. The stalker of Impact Point often watches (perves on) his quarry on closed circuit television screens linked to a series of hidden camera’s he set up in her home. Cloake draws comparisons with the voyeuristic nature of cinema by focussing on the technical framing of the hidden cameras. They pan, tilt and zoom, exhibiting all the techniques of the cinema camera. Those who remember Sliver (Phil Noyce, 1993) will recall the use of surveillance as a metaphor for cinema. Impact Point momentarily explores the same territory in a skilled and effective manner, but it is, alas, an all too brief digression.
Much of the fetishistic camera-work focuses on the delicious body of former Sports Illustrated swimwear model Melissa Keller. Keller imbues her character, Kelly, with the requisite ambition, confidence and self-determination of a professional athlete – all attributes the actor clearly possesses herself. The flirty interview Kelly gives to Holden which develops into a first kiss, then a first date and finally a first night together, is a terrific moment in the film. Keller is at her best in these intimate scenes, her winsome demeanour perfectly capturing the character’s appeal. Green is also effective in the earlier scenes of Impact Point, his charm hiding a dark inner turmoil. Yet, as the film progresses his performance becomes uneven as his Jeckyll character evolves into a Hyde that bears little resemblance to his earlier incarnation. In a short while he will become the cardboard psychotic of every other slasher film and the psychology of his development remains unexplored.
When Holden determines that he will murder Kelly at the final of a volleyball tournament the film paves the way for an exciting, though not entirely credible dénouement. One wonders how Holden will achieve his objective in such a public arena with a battalion of police officers protecting Kelly. The result, while not unpredictable, is fairly satisfying. This is true of the film as a whole; it is very typical in almost all ways. Impact Point follows its generic route without making too many diversions and it operates rather well given its limitations – a small budget and no major stars. It is hard to complain about any film that has its lead actress falling about in the hot sand in a barely-there bikini for a good majority of the time she is on the screen. The film therefore seems to be suffering the same fate as the sport of beach volleyball, sex appeal outweighing credibility. Though Impact Point is a thriller about stalking, it will chiefly be remembered for its tight, tanned bodies leaping around on the beach.
Melissa Keller preparing for a dramatic scene
