99 Homes is a timely thriller that stars Andrew Garfield and plays Dennis Nash, a single father who is evicted from his house, and his only option is to go to Rick Carver, played by Michael Shanon, to win it back.
Rick is a ruthlessly charismatic businessman who evicted Dennis in the first place. It is a deal-with-the-devil type of situation now, and it provides security for his family.
Nash slowly falls deep into Rick’s web, and he rounds the situations more brutal and dangerous as the plot moves forward.
Synopsis
It’s a close-to-life movie, and it explores the corruption of mind and soul. Dennis’s desperation made him take a step that was rushed and unnecessary. All of this situation could have been completely taken care of just by paying the bill on time.
Andrew was great at portraying Dennis Nash, and Michael also aptly played Rick’s character.
Though, he is a soulless guy who makes a profit from other people’s misery. Andrew’s characters were detailed and complex; they could have very well slipped out of the screen if they had not been played with proper attention.
If you have seen Wall Street, you will be able to relate to the movie. Shanon played Michael’s character, who was equally chilling. Evictions and Mortgages are not as glamorous as multi-billion dollar investments.
Still, the director, Ramin Bahrani, managed to keep an ample pace blended with drama and uplifting characters, making the whole plot entertaining.
Dennis’s character, his rise in career, and his descent in moral thoughts are handled and shown in a perfect alignment. Ultimately, all of it looks fair on the big screen, but the overlooked portions are not as satisfying. It is a well-made drama that deserves your attention.
What happens at the end?
The movie did not have a transparent representation of what happened in the end. It is unclear if Carver got into serious trouble or used his cop relationships to get out of the whole situation.
Even the director admits that he does not know. He leaves it totally to the viewers to decide and make their justified endings, which is a bit strange, in my opinion.
From the beginning of the movie, it looked like Carver had a shady connection with the cops who were working with him and taking care of the evictions. It was never really clear about all this, but you can join the dots.
If this is the case, then we can move forward with the theory that he managed to bypass the trouble for all of his illegal doings because he knew cops.
As usual, the rich get richer and can easily buy their way out of all the chaos. For some, the ending will feel true to reality and ambiguous.
Depictions based on real events
Many depictions that were shown in the movie were based on real events. While doing research for the movie, Bahrani went through many cases of such depictions. That is what he showed in the movie.
In an interview with Crave Online. He said that he tried to show that in the movie, some of the cases were heart-breaking while others were scary. Some people had guns, and others had tears.
Even the actors did their homework. Andrew said that before the filming began, he met many families who were going through the eviction process.
He said he went and spent two weeks with those families who experienced the same situation as his character. It was vital for him because when he read the script, he thought he did not know about this as he had never been through it, but he believed that everyone knew what was going on.
When he reaches the scenes where Nash’s family is getting evicted, it feels universal, even though only a few people go through all of it. The feelings of this exile are universal, even though a few people face eviction.
