Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *
Cast: Lola Kirke, Zoe Kravitz, John Cho, Greta Lee, Ricki Lake, Michelle Forbes, Nelson Franklin, Reeve Carney, Jessica Parker Kennedy, James Ransone, Todd Louiso, Marianne Rendon, Juan Antonio, Abraham Lim, Gabreila Flores, Ted Stavros, Levy Tran.
The cult of celebrity is such that when an opportunity presents itself in which you can manipulate it to your own advantage and yet when found to be lying to the public, you can arrange an interview which whitewashes your sins and transgressions and the whole world will still love you. The ordinary citizen suffers under the weight of their choice and the sufferance of demonisation by their friends and loved ones, the celebrity weathers the storm and be applauded for their honesty, even in the face of murder.
It is the realm of the lookalike twin and the two-faced indulgence that brings Gemini to the screen; it is also a film that suffers under the weight of under- performance and the impossibility of duplicity of wanting to offer more in the stagnancy it ultimately provides.
Written and directed by Aaron Katz and staring Lola Kirke, Zoe Kravitz and John Cho, the film presents itself as the mystery thriller in which the bait and switch of the least savoury aspects of celebrity are painted as endearing and to which the assistants, those undervalued members of the division between the haves and the stalkers, the press and the hanger’s on, are to be seen as actually the ones in control of the given situation.
Unfortunately, aside from an underused John Cho as Detective Edward Ahn, there is arguably no urgency in the case as it plays out, the relationship between Ms. Kravitz’s movie star Heather Anderson and Lola Kirke’s assistant, Jill Le Beau, verges on the indifferent, there is almost a sycophantic need that plays out between them which then somehow refuses to be acknowledged as Jill investigates the apparent murder of her boss.
There is a fine line that stands between uninspiring and the need to tell a story, and so falls many a film beneath the wires and the red line; so joins Gemini, and what was obviously a well-intentioned idea, soon becomes apparent that the performances alone bring the film to its knees and fails to gain traction or ground again. A couple of interesting shots, a plausible deniability of terms of expression, does not give the viewer reason to allow Gemini too much room in their hearts or airtime in their minds.
A film that rankles with the viewer because the characters involved are too an extent so unlikeable, unrelatable and lethargic, is one to avoid; Gemini, like its fellow star sign, is indecisive and unfortunately unreliable.
Ian D. Hall