Final Rating: 4.5/5
A Safe Distance from Gloria Mercer puts a new twist on the heist movie by showing us more of the aftermath rather than any of the events themselves. The film starts out with Alex (Bethany Brown) and her boyfriend Joey (Chris McNally) arriving at a remote camping spot in British Columbia, but when Joey’s proposal is just a speech about himself, Alex realizes he’s not the man she wants to be with. In his anger Joey strands Alex alone in the woods as he drives off in the morning.
The next day when trying to find her way back, Alex trips and falls rendering herself unconscious. Luckily she is found by Kianna (Tandia Mercedes) and Matt (Cody Kearsley), two nomads who are camping nearby. They take Alex to their site and help nurse her back to health. They’re free spirited, confident and easy on the eyes. They speak about being free from the shackles of capitalism and doing what makes oneself the happiest, all things that speak to Alex.
After a debaucherous night, Alex realizes that the two of them are bank robbers who have been plastered all over the news over a botched robbery that left a bank teller shot. To avoid suspicion and danger to herself, she keeps this revelation private and keeps going along hoping to find a way out.
As Alex waits for her opportunity (and for the duo to drive her back to town), she ends up being enraptured by Kianna who is seemingly underappreciated and undervalued by Matt, much in the same way Joey made her feel. This then makes Alex reconsider if she can’t wait to be back at home in her comforting HR job, or if she maybe wants to stay and join this modern day Bonnie and Clyde.
The lush BC landscapes are the setting for the film as almost the entire movie takes place in the woods. Despite having nothing around them, you still feel the potential threats that could come in at any moment. Will Joey return or send a search party for Alex? Will the police realize where Kianna and Matt are? When Kianna and Alex rob a convenience store is that something that will bite them in the butts?
Devan Scott’s cinematography is spellbinding, particularly on the two substance fueled nights the trio has, the first is when they take mushrooms and experience a threesome with the world subtly bending and warping while still being intensely erotic and the other when the girls get Matt drunk and hatch their own plan. The images are accompanied by Caleb Chan’s phenomenal score, knowing when to let the silence of the forest take centre stage and when the tension must be played up.
Tandia Mercedes and Bethany Brown are incredible together, showing a level of vulnerability and quick comfort with one another, making their new found friendship and romantic interest palpable.
A Safe Distance is a bold Canadian film that takes you on twists and turns but is more about the emotional arc of the characters than it is about whether or not these criminals will get away with it.
A Safe Distance was seen during the 2026 Vancouver International Film Festival.
