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Coming home after a tiring day at work, Afghanistan and Iraq veteran Travis (Dade Elza) finds his wife Madeline (Kambra Potter) with her old friend Dallas (Jake Red), whom she promptly invited to dinner. At the dinner table, the two men get into an argument over the deployment of American troops to foreign country, a topic Dallas just can't let go despite Madeline's repeated urges to change the subject as Travis is suffering from PTSD. Eventually, the argument gets so heated that the two men start to get into a physical fight, which causes Travis to pull a handgun, just to scare Dallas off. But Dallas sees this as an invitation to attack Travis physically, and in the ensuing brawl, the gun goes off and kills Dallas. Shocked by what he has just done, Travis runs away, gun still in hand ...

It's photographer Nadia's (Anastasia Antonia) big night as it's the opening of her exhibition at Craig's (Richard Sabine) gallery, and everyone's there from the town's top art critics to prospective buyers to who-knows-what-some-of-these-people-are - and suddenly a madman, Travis, wielding a gun, storms in and takes them all hostage ... and he really doesn't have a clue what to do with his hostages as he hasn't planned any of this. He doesn't want to do any of his hostages any harm, but neither does he want to be shot by the police, which is likely to happen should the building be stormed - but this makes him impossible to negotiate with. But while he's holding the people at the gallery in gunpoint, things show themselves much less black and white as they first seemed, as many of the hostages have gone through traumatic experiences of their own, starting with Nadia, who has spent her childhood in war-torn Lebanon. But does this help the situation or only make it more explosive ...

Now hostage situations have long been a staple of the crime and thriller genres, which makes it somewhat hard to infuse new life into a pretty much standard situation - but 86 Melrose Avenue does pretty well at that, as it focuses not just on the central conflict on hand but pulls back to paint a bigger picture, one that involves the fates of several of the hostages in relation to the perpetrator, and even the art exhibited at the gallery mirrors the goings-on in a way, making this more than just your standard thriller but also some sort of social commentary - which is only augmented in the post-finale interviews that really give the thing substance. And thanks to a relatable cast and a subtle directorial effort, this has become a very compelling and pretty unusual movie.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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