Writer/co-director Tiana Woods and co-director Allen Woods II take us down a dark rabbit hole in their relationship drama Love Trap. Stacy (Jennifer Franklin) seems to have a perfect life. She’s been married to Kevin (Brian Creary) for 14 years, and they have children together. But all is not well. Despite his dedication to Stacy, he’s tempted to wander, while she feels detached from the marriage and her home life.
Kevin explodes angrily at Stacy when she comes to his office and challenges him about his attractive young co-worker. Stacy’s suspicions are on a hair trigger because of trauma in her past. This leaves Kevin walking on eggshells around her. The meltdown leads to a separation when Stacy asks Kevin not to come home for a few days. Her therapist suggests she may be in an abusive relationship, despite her calm facade.
On her next visit to Kevin’s office, Stacy actually catches him in an intimate moment with his co-worker, and she leaves in a rage. At the bar where she’s drinking and processing what to do with her life, a smooth stranger named Travis (Meco Hendrickson) introduces himself, and in a weakened, drunken state, she makes a bad decision. Kevin goes into a frenzied search when she can’t be reached, calling hospitals and relatives.
“Kevin explodes angrily at Stacy when she comes to his office and challenges him about his attractive young co-worker.”
Meanwhile, Stacy is indulging in a rebound affair with Travis. When Kevin catches up with them in a hotel, he’s just in time to stop Travis from assaulting her when she declines to have sex with him again. The men fight, and Kevin storms out, asking for a divorce. Changes come fast in this universe.
Whether Stacy and Kevin can stay together will hinge on the reconciliation of Kevin’s traditional views of women and marriage versus Stacy’s emerging self-awareness that life can be more fulfilling than just being “wife” and “mother.” Her brief dalliance with Travis opens her mind to the possibility that she can find herself and her own path. The challenge will be how to reset her life to meet all those goals. This story is not over yet, though. Territorial male rage and tragic outcomes still await the viewer, as the drama flares up once again before the credits roll.
The filmmakers set an ambitious objective: to create a drama that titillates with betrayal and rage, but then bends that emotional turmoil into a parable about self-discovery. There are multiple layers, with arguably too many moving parts. Not all of the elements come to a satisfactory resolution, but enough of the story gels that it all works in the end.
The performances are adequate, but have a forced, awkward quality. Production values are commensurate with a moderate budget. Locations are suburban homes, offices, and conference rooms. The cinematography is more like video than film. R&B and Rap snippets punctuate segues between scenes and build the mood. The result is a soap opera-style melodrama.
Love Trap is a high-intensity emotional spectacle with nothing held back. The journey is painful, but the viewer can take away valuable lessons learned or simply indulge in watching a slow-motion train wreck.
Breaking Glass Pictures specializes in genre films, usually low to no-budget, and distributes them globally. They provide a friendly home base for Indie filmmakers working with limited resources and have distributed over 500 films. They are “passionate advocates for the independent filmmaking community.” What these films lack in polish, they make up for in ambition and vision.
Learn more at the official Love Trap website.
"…high-intensity emotional spectacle with nothing held back."
