Handshake opens in the wilds of Montana.  Bill (Joe Basso) is getting ready for a day of fly fishing while Devin (writer/director Robert Shupe) is running from what must be two of the laziest dealers in Montana. See, Devin got roofied at a party and lost $2500 worth of weed, and the dealers want to kill him. But running and chasing is effort, so he gets away, falls in a river and our two unlikely buddy comedy leads meet.  Devin is a loser who, by his own admission, “does stupid shit,” and gets in trouble for it. Bill is even deeper in debt. So he proposes to Devin that Devin kill him so his family will get the insurance and Devin can take his ATM card and take money that will satisfy the dealers out to get him. It’s a twisted Strangers on a Train bargain.  “Life sets traps everywhere,” Bill tells Devin before he has Devin zip tie him and place a knife on the steering wheel so he can kill himself. Bill dies, and Devin seems to get away with it.

That’s just the first third of the film.

Handshake is a low-budget film but it plays to its strengths. The performances, especially by Basso, Shupe, and Mabel Maultsby, who plays Devin’s girlfriend Erica, are all solid and believable. A fascinating aspect of the film is that Devin is completely unlikable – he makes a pass at a nineteen-year-old waitress, he is a casual weed dealer who sponges off his girlfriend, and in general is just not a good person. He’s not a villain. He’s not abusive or evil. He’s just a kind of petty, whiny, selfish jerk.  But the film eventually brings the audience around to his side.  He genuinely believes he has done nothing wrong, and is shocked to find himself facing the death penalty when he believes he just helped a man do what he wanted and get money for his family.

The coda at the end of the film is particularly interesting. Bill’s daughter, Morgan (Savanah Joeckel) goes to visit Devin in prison. We follow her from her car through the entry process (signing in, metal detectors, etc.) and her arrival at the visiting area. During the entire process, no other people are visible – no guards, no COs, no other visitors. The effect on film is to show how Devin’s world has been reduced. It’s really quite effective.

Devin has matured as well. Morgan believes his story and believes Devin knew who her dad really was at the end and has come looking for answers. She believes Bill wanted Devin to get caught, but Devin also acknowledges he made choices.  “I was meant to be in here,” he says. “I’m the one he did it for,” she acknowledges. The ending is philosophically and cinematically well done – we are all victim to the traps that life sets for us, and that we set for each other.

8 out of 10