Observe and Report Free
- Genres: Comedy, Crime, Drama
- Rating IMDb: 58
- Year: 2009
- Duration: 1:26
Summaries
Bi-polar mall security guard Ronnie Barnhardt is called into action to stop a flasher from turning shopper's paradise into his personal peep show. But when Barnhardt can't bring the culprit to justice, a surly police detective is recruited to close the case.
Ronnie Barnhardt lives with his alcoholic mother. He's chief security guard at Forest Ridge Mall, where he's in love with Brandi, a cosmetic sales clerk, and gets a free coffee each day from Nell, a cheery clerk in the food court. A flasher haunts the mall's parking lot, and at night, thefts occur. Ronnie is intent on catching the criminals but has no investigative skills, is delusional about his abilities, and makes mad accusations. His bête noire is Detective Harrison, the city cop sent to investigate. Ronnie thinks he could be an officer, thinks he stands a chance with Brandi, and slowly loses his self control. Will reality set in? What about redemption?
Ronnie Barnhardt has a delusional over-inflated view of his life. He is the head of security (i.e. head security guard) at Forest Ridge Mall, a job he feels he and his team can't do properly without carrying firearms. He still lives at home with his continually inebriated mother who is tactless in her discussions with Ronnie despite the two loving each other. One such comment from her is that Ronnie is the reason his father abandoned the family. Ronnie is medically diagnosed as bipolar, which he doesn't believe should have any affect on his life in any way. And he is in love with Brandi, the vacuous ditsy blonde who works at the department store's cosmetics counter, and doesn't realize that he has no real chance with her barring anything extraordinary happening. In his delusion, he doesn't see other things staring him in the face, such as Nell, the weak-ankled clerk at a donut/coffee concession in the mall, being nice to him not only because it is part of her job. What bothers him most about his job is that mall management calls in the city police to deal with anything of a criminal nature, such as what look to be the two chronic current cases of a flasher terrorizing women in the parking lot, and a spate of robberies in mall stores. The police lead on these cases in Detective Harrison, who Ronnie sees as the enemy in that Harrison constantly denigrates his abilities and chastises him for getting in the way of the investigations, especially as Ronnie uses stereotypes to come to his conclusions as to the criminals. A series of incidents may provide Ronnie a clearer picture of the state of his life. He has to figure out a way to prove who he really is as a human.
