While social media addiction has certainly led to a marked rise in feelings of isolation and loneliness, especially since the Covid-19 shutdown, and especially among young men, these are hardly new dilemmas. Case in point the 1990s-set Mouse, which follows Denny (Kenny Riches, also the writer and director), a middle-aged man who still lives in his mom’s (Hiroko Riches, Kenny’s real-life mother) garage and gets by committing petty larceny in the suburbs of Salt Lake City. Between his seemingly stunted emotional development and intense shyness he has no real friends outside of his mother, a fact that is increasingly beginning to gnaw at him. So when he comes upon a personal ad in a newspaper offering pen pal services he is intrigued and signs up using the name and credit card of a wealthy man whose wallet he had recently stolen.
Maury (Kimball Farley) answers Denny’s call and sets him up with Tess (Sarah Coffey). The two seem to hit it off in their correspondence and before long she is suggesting that she may be moving out to Utah. Denny is of course not the successful businessman he has been pretending to be, sneakily taking photos of the wallet owners’ house and cars and passing them off as his own, and needs to come up with a plan to impress her when she arrives. But she may have a hidden agenda of her own.
After an energetic and engaging opening third, Mouse settles into a bit of an unfortunate lull, asking us to watch the characters spin their wheels while the pieces fall into place for the final act. Thankfully, things pick up once we get there, with Riches proving to have a knack for building nail biting suspense. It’s clear that things are not going to end well for at least someone in this group, but waiting to find out exactly how and for whom keeps viewers on the edge of their seats, even if the actual finale winds up feeling a little rushed.
Performances are a bit of a mixed bag, running from mediocre to great, with Coffey in particular standing out. Riches is stronger as a director than an actor, adeptly utilizing classic thriller framing and pacing—with plenty of help from DP Bennett Duchin and editor Jack Hessler—to keep things interesting, though perhaps a cowriter might have helped with the middle stretch.
Mouse is an interesting look at the ways that the myth of the “American Dream” can fuel our insecurities, sometimes to dangerous extremes, and exacerbate latent feelings of “otherness”. It’s a unique take on the crime thriller that manages to do a lot with a little that is sometimes sadly let down by pacing and performance issues. Despite those flaws, Riches’ strong voice makes the movie worth seeking out. ★★★
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