Marmalade (2024) Review!!

Synopsis – Follows a man in jail who narrates the colorful tale of a romantic bank heist to his cunning cellmate to escape and reunite with the alluring love of his life.

My Take – The latest to join the ever growing parade of actors turning filmmakers is Australian–American actor Keir O’Donnell, best known for his roles in the films like Wedding Crashers (2005), American Sniper (2014), The Dry (2020) and Ambulance (2022) as well as numerous television appearances, who switches gears to jump behind the camera as both writer and director to weave a tale of intrigue, love, and desperation.

While it would be very easy to right off his film as yet another lovers turned robbers on the run story, particularly as it starts out in a rather conventional place as it lures us into a false sense of security. But then, thankfully, becomes a very different kind of beast, throwing you off-course with it’s the first unexpected twist.

Framed as a heist flick, this one is not your typical bank robbery gone wrong kind of feature, nor does it follow the familiar beats of a Bonnie and Clyde-style lovers on the lam story, it is a strange mix of its own, launching the rom com criminal premise to thrilling heights.

Sure, there are usual genre beats to hit but with its well-executed comedic beats and misdirections, it pays off its initial ideas and adds on many other delights. And, as the film nears its conclusion, the audience now fully clued into everything going on, a real heart emerges and shines.

Remember, it’s all about the little details.

The story follows Baron (Joe Keery), a long-haired, love-struck young man who finds himself in prison, after being arrested, processed at the local police station, and sent to the clink to await the next step of the judicial process after robbing a bank. Baron isn’t the smartest young man, but he knows what he knows.

Right now, he knows he needs to get out of prison and meet Marmalade (Camila Morrone), the manic pixie woman of his dreams, who despite her pink tresses and dresses, knew her way around a gun and seemed quite familiar with sticking up banks.

Striking up a tentative deal with his cell mate Otis (Aldis Hodge), who has bragged about being ability to escape from holdings, they formulate a plan. Baron recounts his life story and most importantly how he met the enigmatic Marmalade, and decided to rob a bank in order help his sick mother and have enough to start their new lives together. But all is not quite what it seems in the prison or in Baron’s story.

And this is just the first third of the film and Keir O’Donnell’s directorial debut packs enough narrative turns and endless visual flourishes to last an entire career. The first third plays exactly how one might imagine a low-budget indie film about a Bonnie and Clyde-esque romance set in a small, rural town might play. It pulls in tropes and stereotypes. And it paints a familiar thematic tone that hits on ideas of isolation, desperation, and love.

At first, Baron is our aw-shucks narrator, Otis feels like he’s playing too tough to be serious or this inquisitive, and Marmalade, well, she’s just a loose cannon, a whirl of pink and chaos, and while entertaining, they do act as one-note as they sound. There are obvious red flags in Baron’s whirlwind romance with Marmalade that anyone who has seen a crime film will recognize, such as the sudden disappearance of Baron’s mom’s pills and Marmalade’s inconsistent behavior.

Thankfully, then the film sudden shifts gears with an unexpected twist. And from there, in a steady, pleased way, the film sheds its disguises. Before our eyes, it removes its bumbling mask, the writing sharpens, the cleverness of the narrative intensifies, and the twists, well, they keep on coming.

Indeed, O’Donnell’s experience as a character actor benefits the screenplay, which he also wrote. The characters of Baron and Marmalade command the screen and their contrasting personalities bring a vibrant flair to the Bonnie and Clyde tale of romance and outlaws. But with this love story, there are non-stop surprises.

Some of the plot turns are cleverly embedded clues others expected story beats you’d find in this genre of film. Most pleasing about all of this, is that you won’t expect what happens next.

It helps that Joe Keery, Camila Morrone, and Aldis Hodge bring their absolute A-game. Adopting an earnest Southern accent here, ‘Stranger Things’ star steps away from Steve Harrington’s more confident persona to sink into Baron’s sweetly oblivious demeanor with great success. Blinded by his spectacularly ridiculous hair, his absurd drawl, and the true ineptness that seems to cloak his character, it’s easy to miss everything else going on.

As the eponymous drifter, Camila Morrone walks the line between whimsical and unnerving with ease. She’s by turns unhinged, endearing, and downright diabolical. With this much focus on the two lovers, there has to be fantastic chemistry, which Keery and Morrone fall effortlessly into. Aldis Hodge is too as always very entertaining, without giving too much away. On the whole, ‘Marmalade’ is a compelling crime romp that delivers unexpected delights.