Grace Point (2023): A Thrilling Journey of Redemption

Grace Point (2023)

Written by Rory Karpf and Paul Russell Smith

Directed by Rory Karpf

A young man on his way to a remote drug rehab, finds himself in a strange town being chased by the locals, as well as his own personal demons. (IMDB)

Grace Point (2023): A Thrilling Journey of Redemption

Brandon Hayes (John Owen Lowe) has a serious substance abuse problem. Ever since his mum died, he has been wracked with a combination of anger and guilt, loss and frustration, and has sought solace in drugs and alcohol. Worried for his son’s survival, Winston Hayes (Andrew McCarthy) is driving Brandon to rehab on a last chance, do or die attempt to get him clean and looking to the future.

The car journey is tense, the father/son relationship at breaking point, pushed on by Brandon’s seemingly arrogant desire for self-destruction. A pit stop at a gas station in the middle of nowhere leads to a brief argument with a drifter who threatens Winston as they drive away to avoid any further confrontation.

A little way down the road, while Winston tries to fix the car after it breaks down, the drifter arrives with back-up and violence follows. Winston is shot and Brandon records the whole thing on his phone. 

And then the chase is on, led by the murderous group’s leader, Luther (Sean Carrigan) as they try to retrieve the recording and Brandon flees in an attempt to survive. If he can just make it the twelve miles to the rehab centre his dad was taking him to, he might just live! Now there’s a metaphor for rehab!

At just 84 minutes long, Grace Point, is the perfect length for what is; essentially a chase movie, interspersed with some words of wisdom for Brandon from the people he bumps into along the way. He finds a friend in ex-marine, Cutter (Jim Parrack) a survivalist type living in the forest, who reluctantly ends up helping Brandon while putting himself at risk. Weirdly, Luther veers between seemingly wanting to kill Brandon and offering him refuge or a boatload of cocaine to stay at his military style cult compound.

Through these encounters, Brandon learns a lot about himself, his past, what his future might look like, and experiences some personal growth as he heads, often running, to the end of the movie.

To say too much about Grace Point would be to give away the big twist at the end of the movie and I don’t want to do that. However, the eagle eyed (and eared) among you will spot the set-up and dialogue that telegraph the ending very early on in the movie.

However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and the twist won’t fool too many people, but second-guessing it and being ahead of characters in the movie make for a more interesting experience as you piece the jigsaw together and recognise the influences pushing Brandon to change as he alternates between running, capture and escape. There are moments where characters seem to make some fairly odd decisions but, again, once you figure out what is going on or make it to the end of the movie, it will all make a lot more sense.

Smith and Karpf have put together a really tight little thriller on what I imagine was a pretty low budget and they should be very happy with the results. I didn’t feel cheated by the end/twist and the message, albeit a little cheesy, was well-handled. The film, as a whole,delivers with a decent cast and dialogue. There were a few lines that felt a little clunky as they heavily signposted the ‘twist’, but they were few and far between and didn’t detract from the movie. It’s just a shame Andrew McCarthy isn’t in it that much once he gets shot.

Ultimately Grace Point is a feel-good movie despite being listed as Drama and Thriller on IMDB and also being listed as Horror in some places. Mind you, being chased by a mob who has just murdered your father is pretty unpleasant and there is obvious horror in the premiseof running for your life.

Grace Point is a well-made if ‘light’ thriller that won’t tax you, but does deliver with its pay off, regardless of whether you see the twist coming from a mile away or not.

Grace Point is streaming now from StudioDome.

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