Marlon Villar (Arnold Reyes), driver for a corrupt Filipino congressman, falls victim to a dicey scheme involving the killing of his boss’s young child and the abduction of his own daughter (Ella Guevara). Graceland’s mood of moral turpitude is established from the get-go, in which Marlon is forced to get rid of a dead (and underage) prostitute, and continues through scenes of Manila’s brothel district, shot with a sickening, neon glow. But for all the alleged ethical complexity in this thriller’s noirish narrative, everything’s a little too neat here, from Marlon’s ill wife acting as a motivator to the easy disgust generated from showing a room full of 14-year-old hookers.
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