Syrup Reviews

The thing Syrup gets right is the fast paced, dialogue about marketing an image. The rest of the movie, is mostly just melodrama and terribly designed character structure. A few good scenes is definitely not enough to make this a thoughtful film in anyway, but it is an interesting look into the world of corporate marketing.

Scat comes up with a million dollar idea for an energy drink, but because his naïve he fails to get the trademark and his idea stolen by his friend and former room mate Sneaky Pete. Scat must learn to trust his new business partner Six, even when he begins to develop feelings for her.

Amber Heard was the perfect choice for the mysterious, sexual and image based Six. She exudes sex appeal on and off the screen, and proved with 2011’s The Rum Diary that she has the talent to take on harder roles. The problem here is not her performance. She was fun to watch, keeping the mysteriousness of her character ever present. The problem here was the lack of character growth in between the moments in which Amber was able to shine as the star of the film. The rest of the cast proves to be rather useless, with Kellan Lutz barely speaking a word through-out the film and Shiloh Fernandez looking smug the whole time, even though his character and performance were nothing fantastic.

The idea of Syrup was all about image, that we fall in love with the image we are told to. That if anyone can sell their image well enough, we will fall hopelessly in love with their product. To a certain degree, I accept this is a fancy message for a film. There is always more to the billboard, the image, the sex appeal then what we see on the surface. On the inside there is a person who has worked hard, created something and must deal with the wave of non-supporters. This is why Six is the best character, because we only ever know her as Six. She has firmly planted this persona around herself and she believes that is who she is.

The rest of the film falls short of capturing real emotions correctly. The characters and situations are just planted in the right place to help the film flow, but they hold no real value to the plot and change nothing a long the way. It is exactly the movie it sets out to be, adding no real layers to help convey the overall message.

Syrup could have been a much better film, but is too immature in it’s foundations to become a good movie about how each decision we make has consequences. It tries to be that film, it tries to make mature decisions but it fails to do so on more then just a superficial level. Without the appealing performance from Amber Heard this film would have been terrible, guaranteed.