Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: John Burr
Starring: James Van Der Beek, Mason Gooding, Algee Smith, Keith Powers
The Gates is a reversal of all those '80s/'90s survival thrillers like Enemy Territory, Trespass and Judgment Night, in which white protagonists found themselves fighting to survive a night in the inner city. In writer/director John Burr's clap back, it's three young black men who must find a way out of an affluent and predominantly white gated community. It's certainly a welcome effort (also long overdue is an anti-Deliverance in which white rednecks are menaced by middle class city slickers), but Burr fails to mine his premise for the sort of nail-biting tension it demands.
On their way to a party, college-aged friends Derek (Mason Gooding), Kevin (Algee Smith) and Tyon (Keith Powers) run into a traffic jam. Deciding to take a shortcut down a backroad, they hit what appears to be a dead end when they arrive at the aforementioned fortified community until a sexy blonde in a sports car lets them in. Once in, they find that they also need a way out through the gates on the other side. While looking for help, they witness the blonde seemingly being murdered by a resident who chases after them with a drawn pistol.
Unfortunately for our heroes, the killer is the community's spiritual leader, Pastor Jacob (James Van Der Beek), and so nobody within these walls is going to take the word of three young black men over a man of the cloth.
It's a setup that seems tailor made for both a suspenseful thriller and an examination of America's race and class tensions, but Burr fumbles the ball on both assignments. As a survival thriller it's oddly inert, with a baffling lack of urgency. Rather than creating a sense that everyone is against our three protagonists and nobody can be trusted, they keep running into white people who turn out to be helpful. Maybe Burr is attempting to improve race relations here, but it doesn't do his film any favours as a thriller. Jacob is a rather useless antagonist, and the expected hunt never really materialises. There is little sense that Jacob poses an existential threat to our heroes, who seem hamstrung mostly by their own lack of initiative. After all, their main obstacle is the 15' wall that surrounds the community, but nobody ever thinks to look for a ladder.
Gooding, Smith and Powers do an admirable job with a clunky tell-don't-show script that puts the movie's obvious themes into their characters' mouths. Their bickering creates a feeling that these are three real friends who harbour recognisable resentments. But the problem is that it's all too clear from early on that all three of these young men are likely to survive the movie, and so the sense of danger is deflated from the off. It doesn't help that the survival thriller narrative gets distracted by bizarre tangents, like a wildly misplaced scene in which Kevin is corralled into helping a group of white teenagers record a hip-hop track. The scene is played for such broad laughs that you'll be forgiven for thinking you accidentally switched over to a Wayans brothers comedy.
It's a shame that Jacob is such an ineffectual villain, as in one of his final roles the late Van Der Beek is a menacing presence, all sinewy and coiled like an angry Phys Ed teacher going through a bad divorce. Despite the blandness of the movie surrounding him, Van Der Beek's performance here may have sparked a career revival.
The Gates is on UK/ROI VOD from April 17th.
