Good intention but poor execution

Sometimes an awful picture can be oddly touching if it has been made with the unstinting passion and intensity that writer-director Ralph Torjan has brought to his badly miscalculated “Maple Palm.” Torjan’s aim was to call attention to the injustice suffered by same-sex, binational couples when they run afoul of immigration laws, but he has been deflected from his target by unstinting theatricality, jaw-dropping improbabilities, feverishly overwrought dialogue and a central performance of impressive ferocity marred by pretentious striking of poses and attitudes.

Deborah Stewart’s blond Nicole and Andrea Carvajal’s brunet Amy have been together 15 years, living in an enviably upscale Marina del Rey apartment. There’s a hitch, however: Nicole is a Canadian without a green card. One night Glen (Taymour Ghazi), a super macho immigration agent, breaks in, slams the disabled Andrea against a wall and eventually attempts to rape Nicole.

It’s not a bad setup for a suspense thriller melodrama with a larger message in mind, but once having set his plot in motion, Torjan opts for shrillness, hysteria, heavy-duty acting from Stewart instead of trying for a lower pitch that would have allowed for much greater credibility -- and menace as well. The film swiftly becomes a showcase for Stewart’s emotional extravagance, a fireworks display that runs on with few breaks for nearly two hours.

“Maple Palm” cannot possibly be seriously recommended to anyone, but a reviewer, sitting through it until the long-awaited finish, cannot but be moved by how Stewart and everyone else involved has hurled themselves into the project with the utmost conviction, sometimes with unintended comical effect.

*

‘Maple Palm’

MPAA rating: Unrated. Strong adult themes, situations, some violence, discreet nudity

A FATfilms presentation. Writer-director-editor Ralph Torjan. Producers/original story by Ralph Torjan, Robert J. Feldman. Music Rebecca Hansen and Katy J. Running time: 1 hour, 56 minutes.

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