The creative process can be a little unpredictable. With the goal of watching every possible Katherine Mönnig movie, I came across an absolutely blank page on Movie Search: no translated title, poster, synopsis or review. The film, which hardly anyone will ever remember, because it is inaccessible to view not only in the Russian version (neither duplicate version, nor the version with subtitles, of course, no), but also in the original. However, I think that special audiences would like this film. The film page was as ennobled as possible by adding existing confirmed information, and the matter remained for one thing - a review.
In the tradition of absurdist black comedies, as a classic film in the genre of Harold and Maude, Invitation to Suicide tells the story of a man selling tickets to his own suicide to save his father. And in this plot plan, the film seems quite unusual. We can say with confidence that the intrigue and tense moment lasts until the very end - it is not known whether the main character Kaz will really decide to commit suicide or still chicken out and run away from the main decisive representation.
Kaz Malek (Pablo Schreiber) is an immigrant living in the island Polish district of Brooklyn. His future is already predetermined by his father: the whole generation devoted his life to the unprofitable bakery business, the same fate awaited Casa. The storyline about the eternal clash of “fathers and children” gets hot from the very beginning of the story, and it seems to me that it is stronger and deeper worked out than all the others. There is no black comedy here, the tragedy of the existing relations between relatives: what is the fact that the last ticket for the performance was bought by Kaza’s father, and the possibility of donating your own bakery to save your family – son in particular – is immediately dismissed and is not subject to discussion in the future. Why? My father was a baker and his father was a baker and his father was a baker and his father was a baker and his father was a baker.
Of course, Kaz does not want to put up with the poor reality and decides to steal money from the Russian mafia (yes, the Russians are again shown in American films exceptionally cruel and ruthless bandits). Not created for a criminal life, Kaz fails: he is caught and put the amount of debt - $ 10,000, otherwise his father will be killed.
Unable to repay or confront his father with death, Kaz comes up with an original and equally terrible plan, the idea and meaning of which is revealed even in the title of the film. The main character, despite the selfish, treacherous, terrifying behavior of his father, preferred to become a dead hero rather than be a living loser, whose conscience will hang the blame for the death of his father. And as ironic as it may be, Kaz is surprised to discover that the mobsters and his neighborhood are extremely excited about the idea, not to mention his father.
"But even if he can sell tickets, will he really get through it?" - the main question that will constantly appear in the mind of the viewer. By the time of the performance, this black comedy comes to a surprising conclusion: Kaz realizes that sometimes dying is the only way to take a step toward a better life.
The atmosphere of the Polish expatriate district of Grintpoint is conveyed extremely accurately by traditional music performed by loitering Bayanists, as well as with a really impressive accent for this film. But I cannot say the same about camera work: it looks more like amateur than professional, and the editing was sometimes sharp and I wanted smoother transitions from one place of the story to another.
The cast does not have to be accused of unforgivable mistakes: everyone played decently at the level of this film, and although the image of Kate was slightly unusual, she still coped well with the role of the feminine Eve.
In general, the black comedy “Invitation to Suicide” I would also consider to be a genre of drama that unfolds throughout the film between the son and the father – this is a kind of opposition, a contrast of self-sacrifice and altruism of the main character in the name of saving a related person and the selfishness, cruelty towards him of his own father. In my opinion, this is the main line in the composition of the whole film and pulls it up to the so-called "not bad to see" level.
6 out of 10