The Quiet Arrangement is an independent film which tries to utilize the mishmash timeline of a film like Memento, but fails miserably. The story surrounds the botched kidnapping of Sharon (Christina Simkovich), the wife of an attorney, Walter Briggs, but the underlying story is much stranger and far more confusing. The timeline skips around to periods before, during, and after the kidnapping at random (well, it probably wasn't designed to be random, but it appears that way) and because of that, it's quite difficult to stay on top of where in the story you are. After the first time jump, I actually rewound the film to see when the first timestamp took place, since it all occurs within a 2-day span and honestly, everything occurs too close together to be able to easily keep track.

Walter Briggs got his hands on a million dollars belonging to a very powerful man. Now, that man wants his money back and has hired people to kidnap Sharon to facilitate this. But there's more to it than that; Sharon had some sort of deal going with a couple of undercover cops right before she was taken, and Walter isn't quite the doting husband he appears to be. What should have been a simple kidnapping for ransom leaves a trail of blood in its wake and no one ends up happy.

I won't ruin the twists in the movie in case you want to see it (why would you?), but I can say that I found the film somewhat confusing and there were plotlines that never really got explained. Except for Kyle Jason, who plays the kidnapper with a kind streak, and Kevin M. Hayes, who plays Walter Briggs, the rest of the acting was actually painful to watch. The visuals were bleak and the color palette was bland, although I am pretty sure that was intentional. Even Chuck D, rapper from Public Enemy, who played the role of Police Captain Abernathy and afforded some big name credence to the film, managed to look silly since the suit he was wearing clearly still had the label on the sleeve. Um, wardrobe assistant? Hello?

Special features include a 30 minute making-of featurette that has members of the cast and filmmaker David C. Snyder (or C- Doc, as his friends and fellow rappers call him) talking about their experience, but I found it pretty pointless. There are a handful of music videos and a featurette on the music, plus several short films, most of which related to this film. There were also several deleted and extended scenes. I found the special features to be more painful to watch than the feature film itself.

This film screams indie, but not in a good way. As I watched the making-of featurette, I couldn't help thinking that these folks reminded me of a high school film club with all of their cursing and way of talking. They bragged about how the film only cost $2000 to make and personally, I'm wondering where all the money went. While this isn't the worst movie I've seen lately (that distinction belongs to Alien 2 on Earth), it runs an extremely close second. Hell, maybe even a tie. Avoid.