by Frank Wilkins
Destiny. Our minds are as different as our faces; we are all traveling to one destination – Happiness. But few are going by the same road. So reads an early passage from Expiration, setting its not-so-subtle theme that will examine the intersecting lives of a half-dozen twenty-somethings on a single Fall Montreal night. Heavily drenched in the fertile exuberance of art-house cinema, but somewhat obscured by the handprints of unrefined talent, Expiration is at times an absolutely mesmerizing thing to watch, and at others, a frustrating lesson in patience.

The story begins as we learn that Sam (Gavin Heffernan) might be the father of Niki's (Erin Simkin) unborn child. Bent on doing the right thing, Sam drives Niki to the city to treat her to a romantic evening and to pop the question. That Sam decides to marry Niki is a testament to his character; That Niki chooses Sam as the baby's father is the product of taking the path of least resistance. Niki knows that Sam will do the right thing. After Sam loses the engagement ring to a two-bit Convenience Store thief, he leaves a note for Niki – who's sleeping off a sick in the car – and sets out for the chase, where he eventually meets up with Rachel (Janet Lane) (a wannabe singer-songwriter who makes ends meet as a drug-runner), whose very important parcel was stolen in the same aforementioned robbery. Rachel and Sam, unwillingly thrown together, spend the remainder of the night, scouring the seamy sides streets and dark alleyways of Montreal in search of the stolen goods.

Meanwhile, Niki wakes to an empty car. Assuming she's been abandoned by her almost fiancé, she sets out on foot, is beaten by a john who mistakes her for a prostitute, and finds herself in the dingy apartment of a local prostitute. From this point forward, Heffernan the director, creatively alternates between the soul-searching adventures of Sam and Rachel that involve dabblings with a deadly game of "tainted-blood roulette" and Niki's flirtations with castration. To somehow survive the night, our main characters are forced to draw from deep within, as they must unknowingly find the courage to face their eventual encounter with fate.

That Expiration tries to touch on so many of life's more pensive issues is its main downfall. Fate, destiny, free-will and human circumstance are heady concerns probably more appropriately tackled one by one. But it's hard to knock such a young filmmaker for being overly ambitious. Heffernan – who wrote, directed, edited, starred in, operated camera for and whatever else he could do to save money – concentrates on the finer points of human introspection and emotion rather than the much-easier-to-grasp physical deeds. While this makes for a sometimes slower-paced film, the fruits of his diligence are much sweeter for the viewer.

Several scenes seem to be filmed on the fly with available light and with little regard to composition, while others appear to be carefully examined and thoughtfully composed. These inconsistencies plague the film throughout, reminding us of the project's frugality. But when we realize that the film was produced with virtually no budget at all, it's amazing how refined it looks.

Expiration is an intoxicating little tale that, upon initial viewing, seems to overly embrace the "style over substance" doctrine giving it an ultra-artsy, film-student feel. But after a second viewing, Heffernan's understandings of the finer points of film structure become much more clear. Each scene contains multi-layered purpose, rather than seeming to be just "thrown in" for continuity purposes. I love how he used a rich, sticky environment and a brooding soundtrack to lead me on an almost mystifying journey towards deadly chaos. Perhaps the mesmerizing call of destiny was too strong to pull me out of the impending tragedy.

Frank Wilkins