I hate giving advice, sometimes. Not because I dislike people or find their problems trivial. It’s more along the lines of not knowing what to say, or the fear of giving the wrong advice, despite good intentions. I’m also not the best at giving relationship advice, seeing as I’m a single guy whose relationships have primarily consisted of going out for coffee. It’s best to leave it to the professionals, in my opinion. With Lex Lybrand’s Meet Me There, it seems even with professional advice on relationships, things can still go bad.

Ada (Lisa Friedrich) and Calvin (Micheal Foulk) are having problems in the bedroom. Ada has become resistant to intimacy due to some psychological trauma that she experienced in her childhood, and can’t remember the cause. After consulting Ada’s therapist, the couple decides to travel to Ada’s hometown of Sheol, Oklahoma in order to find out what happened when Ada was younger. Upon their arrival, Ada and Calvin are greeted with hostility from the locals. The hostility increases to the point where their car is torched, leaving Ada and Calvin to have to fight their way out of town to survive.

The film can be best described as a psychological horror film with hints of arthouse cinema. Much of the film deals with Ada and her inability to recall her past. Mixed in are dream sequences shot in black and white that bring out that arthouse feel. As such, the film doesn’t have the feel of your traditional psychological horror film, even though there are a lot of traditional small-town horror elements for the genre. One such example is in Dustin Runnels’ Preacher Woodward. Runnels is definitely an imposing presence in this film, making for some disturbing moments. The same can be said of Jill Thompson, who plays Ada’s overtly religious aunt. It also helps that her makeup sells the backwoods redneck in her character. Of course, the film focuses on Ada and Calvin, first and foremost. Both Friedrich and Foulk turn in great performances, and genuinely come across as a very real and caring couple. The car ride near the beginning of the film does a good job of developing these two as they converse. It also helps that Lybrand devotes a great deal of the first part of the film to developing the two characters, which is essential to a film like this.

Presentation-wise, the camera spends a great deal of the time in tight with characters, creating something that’s both intimate, and at times, uncomfortable. The aforementioned car ride is a perfect example of this, since it’s essentially panning between the two of them for three minutes, with a few cuts in between. The thing is that the camera remains in this close quarters setup for much of our time with Ada and Calvin, either apart or together. I understand the need to get across to the audience the idea of being there with the characters, almost experiencing what they’re experiencing. However, it does open up the problem of feeling claustrophobic, as well as cutting the audience off of what’s going on around the characters. You’ll see Ada and Calvin reacting to something, but we don’t know what it is. This would’ve been okay for a few instances, but the constant need for the camera to be so close almost all the time makes these moments more frustrating than suspenseful.

The film also has a few problems with pacing. It can be a difficult balance to have moments of character development, along with having plot progression. Unfortunately, the beginning of the film gets bogged down with so much time spent on developing Ada and Calvin, that they only end up getting to Sheol a half hour into the movie, which itself clocks in at 93 minutes. Worse, things only really start to get going at the one hour mark. It’s odd, since I normally appreciate slow-burners, but this film felt like it needed a bit of tightening up.

Regardless of my idiosyncrasies, Meet Me There is still quite the indie film. The focus on Ada and Calvin’s relationship and characters is well done, and the supporting cast combined with the tight camera setups really make for some uncomfortable, creepy moments. The pacing issues and the constant need to have the camera so close in the scenes does frustrate at times, but the film is still strong enough that it’s forgivable. If you’re up for some psychological horror mixed in with character study, Meet Me There works to scratch that itch.

Video/Audio:

Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, the video is about as you’d expect from an independent release. The film sports a consistent amount of mosquito noise throughout, and fine details are inconsistent. Colours are fairly strong, with only a small bit of compression. It’s an acceptable presentation, overall.

As with the video, the film’s Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track is what you’d expect. Dialogue is sometimes difficult to hear at times, and the ADR is pretty obvious at certain points. Again, it’s okay, given the budget and its origins.

Supplements:

Starting things off is a three-minute Interview with Dustin Runnels. Dustin goes over things like his dunking scene with Lisa Friedrich (21 takes?), his favourite scene in Meet Me There, as well as touching on his first film. Not entirely informative or interesting.

Following that is a five-minute interview with Jill Thompson, who talks about doing her best Amy Sedaris with the role, her makeup effects, how she got involved with the project (her love of wrestling), and her other experiences on the set. Again, not terribly informative, but it’s a little more interesting than what Dustin had to say.

The film’s trailer rounds things up for the extras.