TOLL is the story of a woman who works as a toll taker in a small town. When her gay son’s Tik Tok videos cause her problems, she begins to skim money from her job in order to get her son into a high priced conversion therapy workshop
This is a well made slice of life about which I have uncertain feeling for. It’s a beautifully acted and great looking film that doesn’t seem to know what it’s to do. Why are you telling me this story and who did you make this film for? This is the rare film where I really don’t know who the audience is supposed to be.
A big part of the problem is that the mother and the son each seem to be from different films. They are on different planets from each other. I don't know when I have ever seen family members in a film that don’t belong together. The two characters feel as though they are complete strangers. Were the actors ever introduced to each other before they got on the set? It doesn’t feel like it.
It doesn’t help that the structure of the film is much too loose to create much suspense. We are meandering through events in a way that doesn’t create much tension or urgency. We are observing too much and not really feeling that we are part of events. I disconnected with the result that by the time the end credits rolled I was unmoved.
This is a disappointment.
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