Trigger Point Parent Guide

Lewis (Barry Pepper) is a popular man about town in his small community in upstate New York …but the residents have no idea that their helpful, mild-mannered neighbor is not, in fact Lewis, but highly lethal special operative Nicolas Shaw. He’s been lying low following his capture and torture by people he can’t quite remember, and enjoying his quiet, if paranoid, existence. When Elias (Colm Feore), a former colleague, turns up, Nicolas learns that he is the only surviving member of his team, the rest of whom have been eliminated by a mysterious assassin. Working with Elias takes a great deal of trust on both sides, but Nicolas believes it may be the only way to stay alive. Even then, the world of secrets and spies is not conducive to long alliances, and the more Nicolas remembers of his past, the more he wonders about his new partner.

Trigger Point feels like a sequel to a film that doesn’t exist. I’m not one to beg for exposition in my action thrillers, but I would greatly appreciate… well, any exposition at this point. It certainly made me more sympathetic to the protagonist’s memory loss, but even he had a better grasp on what was going on than I did. There are characters and organizations and dynamics that are clearly important to the story but which the movie never bothers to properly introduce or explain.

Negative content, as you might expect, is primarily centered on violent shootings, with a few depictions of torture sprinkled in just to keep you awake. Not that violence is the only problem. A rather unscrupulous interview with an even more unscrupulous underworld figure shows prostitution, sex toys, and of course, nipple pasties. You know, just to break up the violence for a minute. There are also around 30 sexual expletives, which is lower than I had expected but still higher than, say, my mother would be entirely comfortable with.

For all that, this film isn’t a total loss, only because the action is quick, interesting, and creative. Maybe I just like Barry Pepper too much to completely condemn the movie, because otherwise it is a real mess. I have very little idea what actually happened or what anyone was hoping to accomplish, and that’s after reading 2 synopses, watching the trailer, and then watching the movie. If you can patch this together, you’re doing better than me…or, more likely, you’re the screenwriter, because I don’t see how anybody else could be expected to know what’s happening.