Give Repo a Chance

Odds are you've heard of Repo! The Genetic Opera via commercials for Saw IV, which only featured the title and DVD case. Personally, I think this was the worst possible thing the producers could have done. The only connection Repo! has with the Saw flicks is their director, Darren Lynn Bousman.

Of course, if you didn't know this and saw the Saw commercials, you would probably A) assume that the movie was very weird (which it is) and B) that it was just cheap torture porn, like the Saw movies (which it most certainly is not).

Then again, there's also the possibility that you've never heard of it, period. This is not surprising. Repo! actually began as a stage play which was then optioned by Lionsgate films to show in limited release. 

So what is it about?

Repo! is set in an alternate world. A plague of organ failures has struck the planet, but a new company has emerged: GeneCo, a giant company that offers affordable payment plans for organ transfers. However, if you don't make your payments, GeneCo doesn't hesitate to send their Repo men to reclaim their property.

In the midst of all this, a young girl named Shilo, who has a blood disease that keeps her locked away from the world, escapes from her home and learns that nothing is as simple as she once thought.

Now, for some people, Repo! will just not be their cup of tea, and that's perfectly understandable. (When I first heard of the movie, I was instantly turned off until I saw the trailer.) However, I do think that this is a good movie and that sometimes, all it takes is a little more information to get people interested. 

So where's the good?

• The cast is very talented. For example, the Repo! man is played by Anthony Stewart Head (better known as Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), who is a wonderful actor as well as a very talented singer. The movie also features Alexa Vega as Shilo (who they cast while she was playing in Hairspray on Broadway; she is best known for the Spy Kids movies); Sarah Brightman as the opera singer Blind Mag (Brightman is the best-selling opera singer of all time, as well as the original Christine from the musical Phantom of the Opera); and Paris Hilton as Amber Sweet (trust me, if I didn't tell you, you wouldn't recognize her... she's the girl putting on a new face in the trailer).
• It's actually a rock opera. Some movies that claim to be operas are just dressed-up musicals (for example, the movie version of Rent, which replaced many of the songs with dialogue). However, Repo! is pretty much all singing, like an opera is supposed to be. Also, it's a tragedy. You don't get too many happy operas.
• The music is good. Some of it's pretty strange--the deleted song, "Needle Through a Bug," is arrhythmic and a little creepy--but "Zydrate Anatomy" is practically a pop song, and "Chromaggia" is a beautiful operatic song that takes full advantage of Sarah Brightman's fantastic voice.
• The characterization is strong. While some of the background characters are just clowns--the Largo siblings are ridiculous and garnered way too much screen time--Shilo and her father Nathan have a subtle, touching relationship, and Graverobber embodies the classic Greek chorus archetype.

Now, don't get me wrong. Repo! has plenty of flaws. It is very gory (although, if you ask me, most of the gore effects are ridiculous and not shocking at all), and, while it has high aspirations in terms of character and theme, it rarely reaches them.

However. I've seen far too many people reject this movie out of hand when they haven't seen a clip or even the trailer. If you like Saw, you'll like it. If you like Rocky Horror Picture Show, you'll like it. If you're a fan of Anthony Stewart Head (as I am), you will adore it.

I'm not asking you to like it, or even to watch the whole thing. Just take the time to look: watch the trailer, check out the site, maybe Youtube some of the clips. It really is too good of a movie to get ignored like this.