Alex Romero (Jonny Beauchamp) has never had it easy. Along with battling alcohol, the protagonist of The Way Out has issues with intimacy in relation to men because of a bad relationship with his dad. Right as things start getting better for him, Alex gets hit with another huge blow. Barry Jay’s movie looks at its heavy subject matter through the lens of suspense thriller and it doesn’t always pull it off but the parts that work best in this gripping, occasionally moving story win out.
He may lack in some areas of his life, but at least Alex has a good support system. Best friend Grace (Ashleigh Murray) and AA sponsor Veronica (Sherri Shepherd) help get Alex through losing another parent; trying to reconnect with him during his first year sober, he finds someone has killed his father. The blow is softened by a cold comfort. Alex inherits his childhood home so long as he can make the back payments.
Enter Shane: enigmatic and understandably alluring played by Mike C. Manning. Against glaring red flags and Grace’s disapproval, Alex jumps on Shane being his new roommate. Before too long insidious Shane is giving unsolicited advice and influencing Alex to be someone he isn’t.
The Way Out looks like a modern Lifetime thriller, but its story is far from conventional. In what might incorrectly be summed up as a queer Fatal Attraction, struggling Alex isn’t just looking for Mr. Right, he wants outright guidance now that dad’s gone made more complicated when he and Shane have a lust-fueled manipulative relationship together. Another director might opt for subtext, Jay does not sit on the fence No this movie skips straight to second base showing us how far Shane is willing to go to get under Alex’ thumb.
This story is about exploitation, about how abuse doesn’t always have a clear start or ending point if there was ever even one at all. The Way Out sinks its nails in, never afraid to bring up an unsightly amount of dirt about its characters.
Alex is certainly no perfect victim and his realistic flaws are refreshing. It’s always a risk in these kinds of movies that the antagonist will just be mechanically evil for evil’s sake with no actual rhyme or reason behind their behavior, but Shane is given a tangible origin that isn’t convenient or rushed. Granted nobody should be surprised by what Shane wants with Alex nor how it ultimately ends between them, but what shocks more is the director considering his rationale.
Another example of The Way Out’s remarkable qualities is its acting. Beaumont’s performance as Alex is so committed that it becomes transparent, like a pane of glass. He doesn’t try to cover up his character’s mistakes either, he plays them bare. Manning does something similar with her role as the best friend a character often written in these movies as nothing more than a device to help the main character along their journey but she also brings texture to what could have been just an obligatory sidekick.
What really struck me about Murray’s script, though, was how well it understood the nature of brokenness when it came to Alex and Grace’s friendship, those parts don’t just snap back into place by the end. And Shepherd? I honestly expected her character to be little more than window dressing, yet Veronica turned out to be this story’s tether. She is what keeps everything grounded.
The Way Out does not skim the surface or shy away from its own shadows visually speaking, in fact, one might say it dives right into murkiness and sometimes those events are too sad for themselves. But Jay never lets go of hope entirely, he packages resilience and forgiveness inside an exciting psychological-thriller wrapper that demands attention throughout.
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