calgarywino I stumbled across this movie on Warner Brothers TV and even though I missed the first part of the movie it was so captivating that I had so watch it. The premise though seemingly simple, relied upon character studies of people in a stressful situation where everybody feels over their heads, even those supposedly in control. This has been done many times before so it's not unusual, but I liked the idea of Canadian 'gang kids' who have an executive treed in a park overnight. All in one scene emotions could run through fear, bravado, self doubt and aggression; the darkness of the people mirrored that of the night. Both inner and outer group conflicts manifested themselves as the night wore on. There was subterfuge, guile, bluffing and cunning and for the most part, the dialogue didn't seem forced or false. Throughout all and the acting was excellent. In disagreement with another reviewer I thought that just having another thoroughly evil gang passing through and not choosing to involve them further was wise and kept unnecessary complications from distracting from the group dynamics we'd already gotten familiar with. The other gang just served to highlight the insecurities and more human aspects of our gang's personas, and therefor made the outcome more plausible.Detractors of the film should know that for the most part, Canada is a kinder and gentler country, where firearms are restricted so are not common, and we don't have as many issues with large inner city slums or ghettos. The makeup of 'our' Toronto gang was African Americans, Caucasians and one girl, which is certainly not stereotypical. The movie speculated how Canadian 'wannabe' gang members might try to ape the actions of the more street hardened thugs south of the border who make the papers every day, but in reality be more unsure and fearful of the real consequences of their actions. Lastly, all the situations and changes and revelations the individuals underwent made the ending plausible and showed that sometimes in extreme circumstances when the poop really hits the fan, opposing sides can come together to offer kindness and caring and come to the aid of others even at risk to themselves. That's the Canadian way.

sweepsupplies I bought this movie because I wanted to watch more movies with David Hewlett. I have to say he is really good in this film. He makes his Murray a believable person with faults and good points. At first I couldn't see how he could win against the gang( he is in a tree for most of the film, trapped) but he is a good talker and that is a real advantage and at times he sticks his foot is his mouth big time. The rest of the actors are good and believable. Only thing is that all of the main people are not who you think they are. Funny how we all think we can tell who everybody is just by meeting them. This movie proves this to not be the case. The acting in this low budget film is great and the story line is not new just not over done.

Todd Kelly I didn't expect to even watch this film but I basically forgot to change the channel and was fixed to the T.V. from start to finish. Great story line, great twists, fairly well acted but it would have been nice to throw a few more buckaroos at a script like this. Not a masterpiece but I was definitely captivated from start to finish.

unbend_5440 A man named Murray gets into an altercation with a gang after getting lost in a park. The gang then chases him and Murray is forced to hide in a tree. Of course it doesn't take the gang longer than a minute to find him hiding up there (and thankfully it didn't take them longer... that would've made for a poor movie). This is how Treed Murray begins. The rest of the movie takes place over the course of one night, with Murray hiding in the tree, and the gang waiting, taunting, intimidating, and threatening him from down on the ground.Of course Treed Murray isn't as simple or basic as the plot may lead you to believe. At only 90 minutes long, it manages to be more intriguing, fascinating and brilliant than any movie I think I've seen in the past year. The dialogue, which makes up 95% of the film, is more than enough to carry the entire movie on it's own. On top of that there are amazing performances from all the actors. David Hewlett, who was the best thing about the Canadian show Traders, is in almost every scene as the main character, Murray. He brings so much to the movie and his character. At every point in the movie you sympathize with him, despite his character being a bit of a low life. It seemed like every other scene had some new revelation about Murray that gives you good reason to hate him, yet Hewlett still makes him a likeable guy somehow. If Treed Murray can get as much great exposure as one of Hewlett's earlier movies CUBE got, he could become one of Canada's next big acting exports.But as brilliant as David Hewlett was in Treed Murray, myself and everyone else who watched it with me thought he was upstaged by Cle Bennett, who plays the gang leader Shark. Bennett is powerful and charismatic, an odd thing for a young and fairly inexperienced actor. One of the questions brought up in the story is why Shark is the leader, and why he makes all the decisions for the rest of the gang. I'm thinking if I knew someone like him, I'd probably do whatever he said too. I hope there's a Director out there looking to hire Bennett, because he has such star potential.In the end what really works about Treed Murray is it's realism and character development. Even though Murray is the hero of the film, he has many flaws. And even though all the gang members would be clear cut villains in a typical American movie, here they have several redeemable qualities. I loved that all the characters had interesting and honest things to say. Despite the fact they're trying to kill a guy for no reason, I found myself agreeing with so much that they said.Treed Murray is one of those rare movies that you not only can't turn off once it begins, but you can also watch over and over and over again. I give it 10 out of 10. If I was allowed to give it anything higher, I would. I LOVE this movie.