In the commentary track of the DVD of "Gemini," the writer-director-editor of this modest film is articulate about his goals, and he has some filmmaking skills. But his film was sluggish in the pacing and included too many clichés in the thriller genre.
The film fails to capture the glitzy and high-pressure experience of being a Hollywood star. As an audience, we were never sucked in to the major drama of a personal assistant to a big star, whose murder leads the assistant to try to do the job of the incompetent police detective and prove her own innocence by solving the crime on her own.
In the overall concept, the filmmaker had the obligation to provide a satisfactory resolution. In this case, it was not enough to merely identify who committed the murder and leave the audience hanging on the details. An explanation of what actually occurred at the crime scene was needed. In this regard, "Gemini" left the audience disappointed, especially in the subplot about an apparently obsessed fan who speaks in only one scene.
It was also not credible that the bubbly personal assistant, who is so incompetent with a fire arm that the gun accidentally discharges while she is holding it, would suddenly turn into a skilled private detective. The most ludicrous scene was when she was hiding in a hotel room closet eavesdropping on a would-be suspect. It was not even credible that she could have driven a motorcycle as skillfully as the stunt performer did in the film.
There was a wide range of suspects in this murder saga, and then the filmmaker pulled the rug out from under the audience with a plot device that seemed like a gimmick at the outset. This was a manipulative film that failed one essential test of Screenwriting 101: we need to care about the characters and get an explanation of the crime that was at the center of the drama.
The film fails to capture the glitzy and high-pressure experience of being a Hollywood star. As an audience, we were never sucked in to the major drama of a personal assistant to a big star, whose murder leads the assistant to try to do the job of the incompetent police detective and prove her own innocence by solving the crime on her own.
In the overall concept, the filmmaker had the obligation to provide a satisfactory resolution. In this case, it was not enough to merely identify who committed the murder and leave the audience hanging on the details. An explanation of what actually occurred at the crime scene was needed. In this regard, "Gemini" left the audience disappointed, especially in the subplot about an apparently obsessed fan who speaks in only one scene.
It was also not credible that the bubbly personal assistant, who is so incompetent with a fire arm that the gun accidentally discharges while she is holding it, would suddenly turn into a skilled private detective. The most ludicrous scene was when she was hiding in a hotel room closet eavesdropping on a would-be suspect. It was not even credible that she could have driven a motorcycle as skillfully as the stunt performer did in the film.
There was a wide range of suspects in this murder saga, and then the filmmaker pulled the rug out from under the audience with a plot device that seemed like a gimmick at the outset. This was a manipulative film that failed one essential test of Screenwriting 101: we need to care about the characters and get an explanation of the crime that was at the center of the drama.