The combination for Bryan Root's Dirty Habit is unfortunate: decent directing, on par acting, passable shot design all that flourish a mediocre script. Essentially this makes for a cinematic experience in which the visual and emotional elements of the film work and the narrative elements lack the orginiality to give the strength for the others' credence.

Working in a pseudo-Lynchian mode, the film starts out in medias res with coke-addict prostitute Leslie (Kirsty Hinchcliffe) screaming at a hook (Sam Anderson) gone wrong. In a confounding series of jumps, the prossie ends up trapped in an elevator with Amelia (Reagan Dale Neis), a Catholic sister in training. While at first the two back-and-forth in amicable exchanges, the tension runs increasingly sexual and oppressive as the two live through the Catholic dichotomy of woman as whore and saint. While it can be handled deftly, the thematic concept so often explored follows on a hackneyed and twisted journey here, so much so that in the story's unshocking turning point the reveal of this dichotomy is done through a single, laughable line of dialogue.

To the film's credit, however, Root does bring to the table bits of nuance directorially that save it from the same dire fate as his script. Scenes of Leslie and Amelia on the elevator, dancing the grounds of right and wrong, work with well-executed sexual tension. Between the shots, Neis' understated focus and Hinchcliffe's overblown passion--although at times this runs from overblown to overboard and destroys the consistency of an exaggerated Southern accent, the tension keeps a necessary energy in scene. Anderson's performance too, such a far cry from his sweet protrayal of Bernard on Lost, showcases a certain and intense understanding of the darkness of desire.

Beyond the grip of this tension, there's little to recommended the film in terms of innovation. It lives within the realms of psychological horror and experimental filmmaking--the thrust of which depends on a disturbing and unnecessary talking purse, and in neither of those realms does it add to the genre's vernacular. It's a best an awkward copy, and one in fact that screams of a desire to be neither.

For more information on the film visit www.dirtyhabitmovie.com.