There are two types of low budget movies in this world: the independent labors of love that focus on incredible characters interacting within an interesting storyline and those that just look cheap. Unfortunately, The Pink Conspiracy falls under the second category. It is, like most freshman attempts, a brilliant concept plagued by amateurish writing, terrible pacing, and an unclear plot line.
This film is the story of Dave (Brad Snedeker), a well-meaning young man trying to make sense of his relationship with Jamie (Mercedes McNab), the girl who has made him finally consider settling down. Just as he’s warmed up, she’s turned cold, leading him to believe that she might be cheating on him. After tailing her one night, he discovers that the truth is far worse, that she is president of a club that’s sole purpose is to make his life miserable. He befriends her ex-boyfriend, Frank (Frank Krueger), who was the group’s previous target, and they set about bringing the conspiracy to a grinding halt without much irreparable damage to Dave’s psyche. Along for the ride is his best friend Victoria (Mackenzie Firgens) and a slew of oddball characters that lead Dave to face the truth about the fairer sex.
The Pink Conspiracy could be a brilliant dark comedy, satire or whatever new word the hipsters are using these days, but the genius of the writing seems to stop after the concept flashed into writer Marc Clebanoff’s mind. The end result is a movie that seems like a string of disconnected scenes that revolve around a central person, but do little to move a plot along. In fact, the goal of the main character is never really clear, leaving the audience with a lackluster ending and the question of whether Dave has really changed at all. From the very beginning, the film fails to make Dave either likable or interesting (one character keeps saying Dave’s a nice guy, but Dave never does anything to show he’s a nice guy) and the film blows its best asset right away by revealing that the conspiracy club exists. So, what could have been an interesting look into a man’s descent into conspiracy-theory madness becomes a second-act chunk of an hour that could have been handled in ten minutes.
After discovering the club, the movie itself descends into madness by throwing in inexplicable characters and scenes that the writer should have known better than to keep. The movie loses the audience immediately following Dave’s witnessing the club meeting as he is hit from behind and wakes up in an old warehouse where he’s beaten, for no discernible reason, by two tough Italian men who threaten him and then, just as flippantly, set him free and never appear in the movie again. It is one in a long line of scenes that do nothing to advance the paper-thin plotline or reveal anything about the main character. On top of all this, the movie treats Dave’s character as if he didn’t actually witness proof of the conspiracy which makes his actions even more convoluted, he defends his girlfriend after seeing her bad-mouth him and actively plan to ruin his life, and most of the side characters treat Dave as if he “thinks” there is a conspiracy when he has stone hard evidence.
Leaving the mile long list of logical fallacies aside, the acting in The Pink Conspiracy is not terrible. Brad Snedeker is an interesting actor to watch and a solid choice as the lead. For the most part, the cast displays an average range of skill but never quite falls into each part, a problem most likely caused by the stiff writing more than anything else. Mercedes McNab, who some will remember as the brat from the Addams Family movies, also shines as the magnetic leader of the conspiracy, but the true joy to watch is Sarah Thompson who seems sunk into her role as Katie, the potential love interest, while everyone else is just acting.
Overall, The Pink Conspiracy is the most frustrating type of movie, a film with a strong concept and poor execution. The biggest culprit is the writing, which makes the writer seem more interested in quirky facts and finding a way to create a director cameo than creating a storyline or believable characters. What should be ridiculous (i.e. the vast female conspiracy against men) isn’t taken far enough and what should be believable (i.e. Dave reaching out to past victims for advice) is taken to extremes for the sake of creating wacky characters that shouldn’t be anywhere near this film. Once again, the writing and editing are guilty of creating scenes that drag terribly which either accomplish something in twice the amount of time it should take or don’t accomplish anything at all.
