Tina Kakadelis
From an early age, kids are taught to be wary of strangers. Stranger danger and all that. It’s a lesson that one of the main characters of the SXSW-premiering A Safe Distance could have benefited from learning prior to the events of the film. Directed and edited by Gloria Mercer, A Safe Distance takes place in the remote Canadian wilderness, where life and survival are far more complicated than they seem to city dwellers.
Alex (Bethany Brown) and Joey (Chris McNally) are on their way to celebrate their relationship of eight years. Alex has her nose in a book as they drive to a camping spot in the wilderness, and it becomes clear that this was more of a trip for Joey than for them as a couple. Joey pushes Alex to hike to the top of a mountain, even though she has no interest, and then proposes. Alex tells him no and Joey abandons her in the wilderness. She comes across Kianna (Tandia Mercedes) and Matt (Cody Kearsley), a couple living off-grid with secrets they hold close. At first Alex is enamored by the freedom of the couple, but soon learns there’s something sinister that unites them.
The opening sequence of A Safe Distance pulls the viewer in with a serene shot of the lush Canadian wilderness, imagery the film often returns to. The serenity contrasts with the intensity of the inter-personal strife unfolding. That opening sense of calm is shattered by a piercing gunshot and a woman who hurriedly asks, “what do we do now?” From there, A Safe Distance takes us back to the series of events that brought these characters here, giving everything new context.
Kianna and Matt are introduced to the audience and to Alex as a sort of Bonnie and Clyde, young-lovers-on-the-run dynamic. They’re unencumbered by the realities of life that plague Alex, like a mortgage, requesting time off from work, and relationships that feel complacent. There’s a fire burning between Kianna and Matt, but it’s one that, if left unattended, could burn them and everything around them to the ground. The longer Alex is with them, the closer she gets to Kianna. The two bond over a desire to have a simple life and the feeling that they’ve allowed their respective partners to shape their identities.
The wilderness is used as a metaphor for a freedom that doesn’t come naturally in the “real” world. It’s both a positive and negative for these characters. They have the opportunity to express their truest desires, but there are no consequences for violence out there. It’s lawless, which allows for uninhibited expression, but can also create power structures where the violent reign. Such is the push and pull of life. Every idea of right and wrong is shaped by manmade ideas. Nature doesn’t follow the rules of human decency, which makes it all the more interesting when you isolate a trio of people alone in the woods.
A Safe Distance simmers with suspense and intimacy, reframing what it means to be on the run. Is there a version where Bonnie and Clyde live happily ever after, or does the blend of crime and romance inherently hurtle toward a doomed conclusion? The film also explores the role women typically play in these dynamics and how a woman’s choice to commit to a life of crime holds more weight than it does when a man makes the same choice. The same can be said for those who have a monetary safety net to fall back on and those who are relying on the score of the heist to get back to solid ground. A Safe Distance is about what happens when we get too close, both physically and emotionally, and how liberation can confine those it seeks to free.
