Haven

There are many moments in one’s mundane existence when the desire to escape is palpable. The ideal destination is usually a sun-drenched island, surrounded by glistening water, and just isolated enough to give one a sense of inner peace. We’d like to believe that “paradise” is a place on Earth. Yet in Haven, the feature debut of 24-year-old director Frank E. Flowers, the seemingly Utopian location of his native land – the Cayman Islands – is revealed to be just as flawed and fragile as anyplace else.

Despite a City of God-like visual flash, rapid pace, and fractured narrative, the plot in Haven has all the substance of a glorified O.C. episode. Orlando Bloom and Zoe Saldana play the island’s star-crossed lovers, whose relationship is endangered by her vengeful brother, a brooding Anthony Mackie. Victor Rasuk – from Raising Victor Vargas – has a gangland debt to pay, although he’s caught the eye of a new isle inhabitant, Blue Car’s Agnes Bruckner. She’s an American teen who’s been dragged away from home by her corrupt father, the ever-uncomfortable Bill Paxton, who just happens to be running from the Feds.

These storylines don’t necessarily connect, as in Crash (2005), although their emotional arcs blend together effectively. What’s disappointing is how familiar Haven’s plot is, considering the stunningly exotic location its set against – glimpsed onscreen only once before, in The Firm (1993). Flowers blends his recognizable cast with Caymanian locals, and gives us some richly detailed images dripping with vibrant atmosphere – such as a traffic jam outraced by a rogue turtle. Yet the filmmakers of Haven are clearly aiming for mass appeal, and sidestep the inherent originality of their setting by using it as a stage for suburban angst melodrama and soap opera clichés.

Nevertheless, this is a well-crafted entertainment that may fall short of standing as timeless social commentary, but does succeed in delighting, provoking, and never boring its audience. Part of this has to do with the cast. Bruckner and Rasuk have a sublimely natural chemistry that makes you want to see them in a romantic comedy of their own. Bloom and Saldana add exceptional amounts of credibility to tearful utterances as stale as “have you ever been in love?” Best of all is Stephen Dillane, wonderfully calculating as Paxton’s cold-hearted boss. Yet Paxton’s monotone persona doesn’t build much sympathy for his deadbeat dad. Ever-underused actors like Bobby Cannavale and Caroline Goodall are reduced to cameo appearances. And Mackie – who was so complex in Half Nelson – does what he can with a role so one-note it practically makes the film’s central showdown ring flat.

The best thing about Haven is its own structure, which includes set-ups and payoffs that are both inevitable and unexpected. There’s real wit in the repeated use of a key seashell, and Flowers keeps the audience guessing about certain events until the last possible instant. Although the characters are formulaic, and the moral revelations aren’t exactly earth-shattering – “it’s all about money!” – Flowers’s passion for his characters and their dilemmas can’t be denied. The film’s brisk 29-day shoot clearly pumped the entire crew’s adrenaline, which is noted in Haven’s breathless energy, highlighted by restless visuals that seem to have every possible angle on a given action.

I spoke with Flowers in a phone interview, in which he passionately conveyed his desire to showcase interesting cultures, by using relatable actors as the audience’s guide into a foreign world. “Millions of people go on vacation to the Caribbean every year, and a very small percentage of them get to see anything other than what is presented to them,” said Flowers, before explaining his wish to expose the “universality” of living in a tightly-knit, isolated community. Living in the Cayman Islands was, according to Flowers, “not unlike living in a small town in America”, where a single tragedy has the power to rock the community forever.

The young filmmaker warns that “We must be aware that there are consequences for the decisions that we make,” which usually lead to the disruption of a fragile paradise. Yet by utilizing familiarly flawed archetypes to illustrate this message, Haven fails to make the audience buy its attempt at realism. What we’re left with is earnest, diverting – dare I say it? – Escapism. Mr. Flowers is certainly a filmmaker to watch, although next time he should try to allow his film’s message to emanate from the characters, not the other way around.

Rating: *** (out of *****)