Pixie exists to further its own gimmick. There’s really no other way to put the experience of watching director Barnaby Thompson’s film, which weaves a convoluted tale involving some petty drug dealers, the murderous priests (both real and, in the case of some gangsters playing dress-up, fake) who are on their trail and a body in the trunk of their car. The screenplay by Preston Thompson (son of the director) rushes through all these events, so that it becomes difficult to keep track of who is betraying whom and why and what all of it means and, most importantly, why we should give a lick about any of these characters.
The closest we come to sympathizing with a character is with the eponymous young woman; Pixie (Olivia Cooke) has a tragic backstory, but it seems as if the Thompsons only care about that backstory insofar as it finally gives Cooke a chance to stretch her abilities as an actor. The details are even unimportant, considering that the script almost immediately snaps back to its duties: getting us to its climax, with its distracting, big-name cameo and a shootout that is utterly pedestrian in form and execution.
That climax and its simplification of everything that has preceded it serves several purposes: It removes the burden of having to care about any of the trite nonsense that occurs before the shootout. It disregards anything about the characters that might be interesting or sympathetic. It tidies up all the flotsam that has built up over the course of the previous 75 minutes. Finally, of course, it provides Thompson (the director) the opportunity to give us an action sequence. None of these things works in the audience’s favor, which is to say that the audience might want to have a good time watching a movie. This one will only offer exasperation.
Pixie is the stepdaughter of Dermot O’Brien (Colm Meaney), a mob leader who is currently in an ongoing rivalry with his former partner Fr. McGrath, a priest played by Alec Baldwin (whose involvement in this project seems to have lasted for the duration of a long weekend), and the apple of every man’s eye, which is exactly how she gets into this predicament. She makes a quick getaway when the rivalry turns to war between mob organizations, one enforcer shoots another and Pixie’s friend Harland (Daryl McCormack) has to run down one of them in his car. They and Frank (Ben Hardy), who is in love (or just infatuated) with Pixie, go on the run, hoping to get away with the money before anyone in either organization catches on.
There is a lot more to the plot — at least, depending on one’s perspective. Another way of looking at things is to say that there is nothing more to this plot, despite all the distractions and side avenues and rabbit trails in the screenplay. Cooke is solid enough in the title role, especially when the film does finally give her the opportunity to make something of Pixie as a character. It comes as far too little effort too late in the game to turn things around for Pixie, a movie that wastes no time unloading tons of plot on the audience but has no patience to pay attention to doing anything else.
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