I attended the world premier of Layover at the Seattle International Film Festival after receiving a personal invitation via social media from the star of the film, Karl E. Lander, an astonishingly beautiful Frenchman making his American feature film debut.
I nearly walked out after becoming dizzy from the hand-held camera-work, in which we followed the female lead, Simone, played by Nathalie Fay (The Hangover), for a tiresome interval as she disembarked her plane, walked though LAX, took a cab ride, and seemingly navigated the entirety of an airport hotel. However, I remained in my seat, since Lander had not yet appeared on screen.
Layover is a film about a French woman (Fay) who is traveling to Singapore to meet her fiancé. When her connecting flight is canceled, the airline puts her up in a hotel and she is forced to spend twelve hours in Los Angeles. Jet-lagged and unable to sleep, she calls an old friend with whom she has been estranged for some years.
The two go clubbing downtown, and when her friend leaves her stranded at the club, she accepts a ride from a mysterious motorcyclist (Lander)—who happens to be French—that leads to an unexpected adventure and a question that Simone must answer for herself before boarding her 7:30 a.m. flight.
The film's director (Joshua Caldwell) and producer (Travis Oberlander) were in attendance at the premier, as were actors Fay and Lander. I was underwhelmed by the film until I learned that it was produced for a mere $6,000—nearly an impossible feat—and was shot in only 11 days, using gorilla filming techniques. Bearing that in mind, I was quite impressed, considering I have seen multimillion-dollar blockbusters that I liked much less.
Caldwell informed us that this was the first in a trilogy of films to be set at LAX. The second film is to be named Assassin and the third, X. Lander and Fay will star in the next film, as well.
Overall, this was a decent debut feature by Caldwell, and you should go see it, if for no other reason, than because Nathalie Fay and Karl E. Lander are destined to be huge stars.
