"If you wanna avoid hard time, do soft crime."
That's the mantra of Denny (Kenny Riches), an unassuming nice guy thief plaguing the suburbs of Salt Lake City and lifting bicycles in Riches' own written and directed feature, Mouse.
He has a thorough method for making a quick buck: Sit on them for two months; get that serial number gone; and swap out the seat, wheel and frames, so it's unrecognisable to any owner who may happen to discover it in a pawn shop or yard sale. Stick to the plan, stay in your lane, and nothing will go wrong.
But that's not living, not really. His life is defined by his care for his mother (Hiroko Riches, Kenny's real-life mom), a widowed Japanese migrant whose isolated existence mirrors Denny's own; their co-dependence is sweet and good-natured, but not enough.
A pen-pal advert in the local paper catches Denny's eye, and he soon strikes up a crackling, chaste romance with Tess (Sarah Coffey), another lonely heart in the club of life. However, all is not what it seems with this too-good-to-be-true connection, and Denny's tiny fragile life soon becomes entangled with that of Tess' con artist boyfriend Maury (Kimball Farley) and the loan shark hounding his every move (Stephen Kerr), leading to a high-stakes series of lies that can only spell disaster for everyone involved.
Modestly toned and stylishly mounted, Riches' fourth feature is a low-key gamble. Taking a leading man role but playing him with all the subtlety of a supporting player, Riches cuts a compelling cipher out of the darkness he often shrouds his film in; cinematographer Bennett Duchin deals atmospherically in Fincher-esque lamp light and matte burnt oranges to draw out the sinister edge of his standard-issue small-town setting.
With huge doe eyes and the stoop of a seasoned character actor, Riches' Denny is a thorny figure to hang the film on. There's an initial whimsy to his narration, like a whimpering puppy-dog gazing hungrily at the lives of the rich and powerful, and Riches smartly leads that desire to a subversive place as the drama gains friction. Occasionally, there's the instinct to underline what would be left better unsaid, particularly when the crimes that were once unthinkable become very doable for Denny, but thankfully actions speak louder than words and the consequences reap some solid tension from the drama.
Sarah Coffey's Tess ends up stealing the show, her cool and collected professional seductress eventually gaining some tragic pathos as her affection for Denny wrestles with her loyalty to her life of crime; this is no romance, but there's enough gentle chemistry between her and Riches for there to be something worth fighting for amid the quick bucks and long cons. Kimball Farley's low-life manipulator Maury also impresses, despite having a less well-rounded role that feels too mild-mannered for the escalating stakes of the story.
Perhaps Mouse's most interesting element is its near-past setting that eerily feels like a completely bygone era. Taking place just before the financial crash of 2008, there's a sense of unease to the unsustainable ways of life that our wannabe capitalist characters can't escape, adding an impending sense of doom to the proceedings, only stoked further by the bad decisions they all make along the way. It's also a smart move to set this in 2007 because this might have been the last cultural moment where a pen-pal scam could feasibly ensnare a seasoned petty criminal like Denny; without the use of easy-access social media and with the idea of a postal romance still seeming sexy, it's a conceit that works well with its period setting.
Unassuming and likeable in equal measure, Riches' new feature harbors a quiet confidence that balances good-natured character writing to get invested in and a slow-burn story structure with two compelling shifts to turn its simmer into a boil. It may never set itself ablaze with excitement, but there's plenty to keep you invested in its unique little world.
The film is now playing in select New York theaters, ahead of opening in Los Angles on October 16, with a national rollout to follow. Visit the film's official site for more information.