The Contract

I've always wondered about straight to video movies. I'd see them in the video store's version of the Island of Misfit Toys, and I wished for the backstory. Sure, sometimes it would be obvious -- what would be the point, afterall, of bringing Lilo & Stitch 2 into a theater near you? But other times it just didn't make sense.

This is one of those times. The Contract, released this summer and starring John Cusack and Morgan Freeman, is the story of a father and son who find themselves entangled with an assassin during a camping trip in the Pacific Northwest. Given the wattage of the two stars, I can't imagine that this film was originally conceived as a DVD release. I can only think that test audiences had trouble with the casting. Freeman is normally the calming presence and moral center of his films; here he plays a cold-blooded killer. And Cusack, who has recently found a niche in romantic comedies, will probably always be known best for his roles in an assortment of John Hughes films. Here he was supposed to be a caring father, but still tough enough to stand toe-to-toe with a trained murderer. Both actors handled their roles well, but I have to admit that I kept waiting for Cusack to crank some Peter Gabriel on a ghetto blaster and hold it up over his head...

Just as the actors break free of their typecasting, the film succeeds because its plot does the same. Sure, we've seen some of the scenes before (the teenage son rebelling after his mother's death; the slick FBI agents ridiculing the local-yokel police force), but the meat of the story makes up for all this. As Cusack and Freeman struggle against each other both physically and morally, they actually begin to respect each other. But just when you think the back half of the movie might begin to move in a touchy-feely direction (like in the episodes when Tom and Jerry stopped chasing each other and united against a common foe), a strange thing happens: the characters act in ways that are true to their respective natures.

Would The Contract have made a dent in the summer grosses of blockbusters like The Transformers or the latest Harry Potter? Probably not. But it's definitely worth your time. Take a look.