Ordinary people in extraordinary situations. It is a simple premise, but one that has been
used successfully many times in films over the years. Alfred Hitchcock used this simple formula
expertly throughout his career. No
Escape is very much that type of story.
This
movie is about Jack Dwyer (Owen Wilson) who moves his family to an unnamed
Asian country because of his work. While
they are getting settled in, a revolution breaks out. Jack must figure out a way to evade the
massive rebel force and get his family out of the country.
Writer/director
John Erick Dowdle (Quarantine, Devil) did a good job with exposition in this
movie. In the opening scenes, we learn
just enough about the situation to understand and care about it. The trick is to explain the situation without
getting wordy and boring with it and that is accomplished here. In fact, the more we know about the situation,
the easier it is to nitpick little problems with it. In this story, the whys of the situation are
not that important. It is a simple story
and Dowdle was smart to tell it as simply as possible. As for the characters, Jack is established
very well. I wish a little more had been
done to establish his wife (Lake Bell) as a character however.
The
best thing I can say for this movie is that it does provide real suspense. There are several very intense moments in the
film. There are even scenes where I was
not exactly sure that everybody was going to get out unscathed. The best and most intense scene in the movie is
the one from the trailer in which they are trying to get from one building to
another. Trust me, the trailer does not
show enough to spoil it. The scene is
done very well and it totally works in every way.
The
acting in the movie is pretty good. Owen
Wilson does a good job in an unusual role.
Lake Bell is good as well and the two have believable chemistry
together. The kids are ok, not quite as
annoying as they could have been. The
show stealing performance is provided by Pierce Brosnan. He is not in the movie all that much but when
he is there, he is the best thing going.
His character is quite mysterious, but if you are familiar with Roger
Ebert’s theory of the economy of characters you will know what purpose he
serves immediately.
Way too
much shaky cam was used in this movie. I
understand that a lot of it is meant to be confusing and disorienting, but when
it is making me dizzy, it is too much.
There was also quite a bit of overproduction in some of the action
sequences, like music and slow motion, that took me out of it a little
bit. Most of the action in the movie is
not filmed as well as I would have liked.
Enough said about that.
This
film at times falls into the trap that a lot of movies of this type fall
into. There are too many conveniences. There are a couple of scenes that are
obviously contrived as a device to put the family in a more suspenseful situation. Also the ending goes about one step too
far. There is a very uncomfortable scene
at the end that is totally unnecessary.
I
wouldn’t normally say this but one big positive this movie has is a very
relevant political message. Like with
the earlier exposition, they talked just enough about it without revealing too
much. It’s not at all preachy but does
get the point across and allows you to make a little more sense of what is
going on.
This
was a pretty decent film. It provided
more real and believable suspense than I have seen in a movie in a while. With a few tweeks (less shaky cam antics for
instance) it could have been a great movie.
Even so, I enjoyed it quite a bit.
It’s a high intensity film with very little downtime that mostly
works. The Movie Man gives it 3 out of 5
stars.
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GREAT! This is one I was wanting to see.
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