Movie Review: 'Collection' Starring Alex Pettyfer

Collection stars Alex Pettyfer as a bill collector, one of those phone harassing types eager to take advantage of those who have fallen behind on bills. Pettyfer’s Brandon is ruthless and he’s successful by being ruthless and chasing down money by any means necessary. Brandon leads a team of collection agents headed up by his best friend and muscle man, Ross, played by Mike Vogel.

As we join the story, Brandon and Ross are meeting with their spineless lawyer who has just helped them narrowly avoid a costly lawsuit. Their collection tactics continue to draw attention and they are facing the possibility of further lawsuits and government intervention if they don’t step back from harassment of their collections clients. That stepping back is now going to happen. Brandon and Ross have just secured a brand new and potentially lucrative collections contract.

While Ross and Brandon are preparing for a collections binge, Brandon is taking in country club life when he watches an encounter between a father and son that he finds impressive. Specifically, Brandon is impressed by the fortitude of the son, Sean (Jaques Coliman), who stood up bravely against his uber-rich father. Brandon sees something special about Sean and immediately offers him a job at the collection agency.

The story of Collection starts a little slowly but begins to take on some dramatic weight when, while at a strip club with Ross, doing business, Brandon spots Christina (Shakira Berrara). Something about Christina sticks in Brandon’s mind and he begins to seek her out at the club on a regular basis. The attraction is sexual but when Brandon finally does get Christina’s attention for a backroom lapdance, he begins to cry and the two share a moment of emotional connection.

Brandon is dealing with grief over the loss of his son and the end of his marriage and it all appears to come to a head just as he’s making the biggest business deal of his career. Christina becomes a beacon for Brandon, an island of humanity amidst the chaos and anxiety of the rest of his life. The two begin dating and Brandon bonds with Christina’s young son, a boy not much younger than Brandon’s own son.

Christina however, is harboring a deep dark secret. The father of her child is a drug dealer who is currently serving a life sentence. The father’s drug connections are supposed to be taking care of Christina and her son but they are not living up to the bargain. That’s why she’s begun working in a strip club. She’s also dealing with debt collectors who want the money that her husband was hiding. I will leave you to learn how that plot plays out when you see Collection.

Collection was directed by Marianna Palka, one of the stars of the Netflix series, GLOW. She broke onto the independent scene in 2010 with the Sundance Film Festival favorite Good Dick. Palka’s style is energetic, her compositions are lively and she keeps a good pace in her work. Collection benefits from not slowing down too much as the movie could easily get bogged down in the competing emotions at play in each character.

Indeed, every character in Collection has a larger aspect of life that they are dealing with beyond the central plot. For Vogel’s Ross, he has cancer and has been trying to keep it quiet. Coliman’s Sean is struggling to deal with his badly fractured relationship with his parents and a drug problem, Christina has her husband, his former business partners, a child and debt collectors banging down her door and Brandon has new love, old grief and a growing sense of disillusion with his chosen profession.

All of those plots are layered in well and the movie still manages to keep a strong pace. Collection is certainly busy but it remains brisk throughout and watchable. The stars are well suited for their characters and each carries out a strong arc from beginning to end. Collection is not without flaws but none of the flaws are enough for me not to recommend it. Collection is a very engaging drama with elements of thriller and soap opera thrown in for spice.

Collection is available as of September 17th, 2021 for streaming rental.