Plot
At 2am, husband and wife, Frank and Madeline get a panicked phone call from their 18 year old daughter.
Following a fight with them, she has driven into the middle of nowhere (with Frank’s car) and hit and likely killed a young woman.
As they race to get to her, Maddy a paramedic tries to assist. Conversations also arise about all of their pasts, present and futures.
Direction
Directed by Babak Anvari, who has directed other horror films in the UK.
Cinematography is by Kit Fraser.
Similarly to Locked from some weeks ago, this film primarily takes place within the confines of a car, and creative liberties were taken to make this feel both more open at times with use of lenses, and also extreme close ups to add to the tension within the film.
Cast/Characters
Rosamund Pike plays Maddy, as well as the voice of the old woman on the phone.
Matthew Rhys plays Frank, as well as the old man on the phone. Both get to use their natural accents, which must have been a welcome relief to them both after so many American accent roles in Hollywood.
Megan McDonnell provides the voice of Alice, who is only heard, never seen.
Breakdown
At a very trim 80m (with credits), the film is almost all told in ‘real time’ with the events taking place over just over an hour. The first almost 5 minutes pan over a quiet house at night time, that seemingly is abandoned – with food left out in the kitchen likely after a meal. It then cuts to an eerie and vast forest, also at night, that would likely be welcoming throughout the day time.
The entire duration of the film is shown with Frank and Maddy on screen. As they are in a small sedan, there are some creative liberties in the use of cameras. It never really felt like the same shot or angle was used twice – and it often had extreme close ups, pan ins/out etc – to add to the claustrophobic feel of the screenplay.
There are some quite intense conversations they have during the hour long travel time to get there that includes issues of Alice’s history of drug abuse, her relationship with her boyfriend, and her unexpected pregnancy. The time on the phone is often shown and the time that elapses on the phone is identical to the time that elapses on screen time, that confirms that it all plays out in real time… very clever.
Also during these calls its revealed that Alice didn’t call the authorities due to taking drugs earlier that night, so Frank offers to take the blame – to protect his daughters future.
Both Pike and Rhys deliver exceptional performances, as they both feel that they were to blame for her leaving the house in a fit of anger. They each have amazing scenes (Rhys with both the revelation of the pregnancy to the audience, and then ordering Alice to get the body off the road, and Pike while telling them both of a patient she recently lost.
There is also an interestingly lack of score for the most part of the film – rather focusing on diegetic sound.
The back half of the film, in which an elderly couple come across Alice, introduces an almost ‘supernatural’ element to the film. As the film is apparently set in Ireland, this sets in motion a series of events that lead to a devastating final arc. I would have like more information in this regard, as there is some throwaway lines from the woman (incredibly voiced by Rosamund Pike) about the fairies in the forest. If it is going to have a supernatural end, we need the answers to the questions!
Overall
Quite a good, and easy to watch and follow (supernatural?) thriller with stellar performances by Matthew Rhys and Rosamund Pike.
I loved the real time aspect to the film, as well as some of the lighting (shadows on the couples faces etc).
The third act somewhat disappointed as there isn’t an actual answer to lingering questions (is it supernatural, or was it all just in Frank and Maddy’s heads?)
A recommend despite these downs.
3.5/5
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Ryan's Movie Reviews 