Cherish

I stumbled across this movie in my “Independent Film” phase in my life. This phase is now the zombie phase, but we are not talking about flesh eaters right now. I was enamored of this film and instantly had to track down the DVD so that I could gobble every bit of it up. Then I had to buy the soundtrack because it was almost as awesome as the movie itself.

Zoe is a shy and insecure computer animator who loses herself in music. She calls the local radio station under the name of “Natasha” and requests the syrupy love songs of the 70’s and 80’s. One evening she goes out to a party in hopes of interacting with her coworkers. However when she leaves the party, Zoe finds that there is a stranger in her car who panics and causes her to hit and kill a police officer. The assailant flees and leaves Zoe to take the blame for the accident. Zoe is sentenced to house arrest until the trial and is given an ankle bracelet allowing her only 57 feet of space. She leaves her posh apartment for a studio in the cheaper part of the city and is forced into a solitude she is not secure enough to handle.

Zoe begins by trying to escape the confines of the bracelet and the apartment only to set the alarm off and causes her parole officer, Daly, to take steeper measures to ensure her house arrest. Slowly time goes on and Zoe becomes less uncomfortable with herself and begins to see that the only way out is to clear her name. She begins to take control of her life and her actions, creating friendships with the people in the building and with her parole officer. With Daly’s belief that she is innocent and that there is a mysterious man out there that caused the death that she is blamed for, he helps in providing her with information and a the ability to find the man who has been stalking her.

I became enamored of the main characters quirky personality and love for sappy radio tunes. It was a light hearted movie about murder, confinement and good old fashion detective work. The soundtrack kept the movie from becoming too grounded in reality, letting the viewer know that this was nothing more than a house arrest fairy tale.