A 25-year old is sentenced to a 25 year prison stint due to a 'three strike' felony conviction for vandalism. His cell mate is a middle-age guy serving a life sentence for murdering his wife. Their confined relationship starts off friendly, but takes a bit of a dark turn when the lifer decides to make his newbie bunk-buddy his prison bitch...
That rundown makes "Jailbait" sound a lot more "raw" than the movie actually is, when in fact, it's more of a psychologically charged 'character study' of two prison inmates pretty much on opposite sides of the incarceration constraint. Young, fresh-faced kid and no-parole, lifetime convict with nothing more to lose forced into a tiny, claustrophobic cell together. It's a promising premise and it's execution here is not as 'brutal' as you would think. The movie consists, primarily, of their verbal interaction. The seasoned cell mate is starved for human interaction and wants the two to share the story of their all time worst sexual encounter. The new guy has a hard time engaging in this type of laid back of conversation, seeing as how he's looking at a 25 year stretch on top of now being his cell mate's new prison wife.
I enjoyed "Jailbait" for the most part. It's no "Shawshank", just a total slice-of-life with no real ending, whatsoever, which I'm still not sure if I completely liked. It's hard for me to express my trivial gripes exactly, considering what the film was going for, although I'd say I dug "Jailbait" for what it was. The performances are really stellar (while consisting of pretty much just three people, including the guy's mom), the dialog is entertaining and the tension is pretty gripping at times. I'd compare it to something along the lines of a Gus Van Sant film, as it remains consistently 'mellow', while keeping the tone pretty unsettling. Those who need lots of action should avoid "Jailbait". Lovers of a slow-burn kinda indie-flick might wanna give it a look.
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