The Departure

So far, Nate reads as a good guy, while John seems a bit of a fussy jerk in his treatment of Amber. However, it turns out that Nate has an issue. He is uncomfortable with Jessica talking about her co-worker, Lucas. She says he’s funny, he’s entertaining, he amuses her, and Nate is so insecure he suspects her of cheating.

Rather than asking her directly, as a grown person would do, about things on his mind, he decides to set a trap for her. Where an emotionally healthy person might want to establish their level of commitment, what expectations (or not) of monogamy should be set while he’s away, questions of the basic adult “state of the relationship,” he pulls a frat-boy stunt by asking John to try to seduce her to see if she’ll remain loyal. The plot sails right off the rails when John, who’s been friends with Jessica for a long time, agrees to humiliate and belittle his friend because her boyfriend is weirdly paranoid. What could possibly go right? Suffice to say, in the interest of plot denouement preservation, that the film plays out in a predictable way, with one twist at the end. 

The are many positive points about the film. The actors are talented,  giving compelling performances that draw the viewer in.  One odd loose end that doesn’t pay off is the character of Amber, who gets jerked around like a kite on a gusty day but serves no function that advances the plot in any way. The women in the film are not fully formed. They are portrayed as sex prizes, or as sirens luring men to their deaths, but not as people.  

“…writer/director Merland Hoxha shows a steady hand at filmmaking, hitting every mark in excellent fashion…”

The unreconstructed sexual politics of The Departure is somewhere between late Cro-Magnon and Shakespearean. There are shades of Othello in the swirling, incoherent jealousy Nate uses as an excuse for his horrific betrayal of Jessica. The difference being that a skeevy sexist setup in Shakespeare can be quaint because 400 years is a long time for a culture to evolve. We can’t judge the mores of the past by our own standards. However, in 2020 we can, and should, do better in films.

It’s too bad, because the production quality, the dialog, the acting, and the cinematography are top-notch, particularly for a debut Indie film. Hoxha should have run the script past some of his female friends, or better, have had a woman scriptwriter complete acts two and three. I would love to see that version. He has created a polished film with a deeply flawed plot and unsympathetic characters. Despite this rough start, with his fine skills as a filmmaker, future works could hold great promise. 

The Departure is an entertaining film on the strength of the performances. If you enjoy “TMZ” style drama, you’ll need to watch until the end… despite the boys not behaving like men.