Here's a twist: this mainstream, totally implausible, highly derivative Hollywood film actually has an ENDING! And not a bad ending, but you have to get through a bit more than an hour of "this is a thriller, dammit!" directing before things start to gel.
Somebody like Carl Franklin, who made the highly derivative but highly entertaining "Out Of Time," might have been able to work wonders with this pretty creaky material. He certainly would have been more relaxed; this movie starts right out with all the usual cliché fast cuts and dramatic music cues that just scream "INTENSE SCARY STUFF AHEAD." Despite all that, this is one of the longest short movies I've seen in a long time. It doesn't exactly drag, but it's so similar in tone to so many other "thrillers" that it seems pretty glacial until the last 25 minutes, which are tight and fairly imaginative.
Why Jodie Foster would choose to do this claustrophobic missing kid movie so soon after "Panic Room" is the biggest mystery here. She is just fine and I guess this is the sort of strong woman role her fans like to see her in. Everybody supporting her is at least passable, but she pretty much carries the film on her own. She also looks her age and does not resemble the frightening, stoned image that has been staring down at us from billboards for the past month.
Note to airplane people like myself: you might be best off skipping this flight. Some very, very laugh inducing things happen onboard this "A474" super jumbo, which looks a lot like the Airbus A380. I especially enjoyed a freakishly convenient systems patch panel wired with...1/4" phone jacks.
Somebody like Carl Franklin, who made the highly derivative but highly entertaining "Out Of Time," might have been able to work wonders with this pretty creaky material. He certainly would have been more relaxed; this movie starts right out with all the usual cliché fast cuts and dramatic music cues that just scream "INTENSE SCARY STUFF AHEAD." Despite all that, this is one of the longest short movies I've seen in a long time. It doesn't exactly drag, but it's so similar in tone to so many other "thrillers" that it seems pretty glacial until the last 25 minutes, which are tight and fairly imaginative.
Why Jodie Foster would choose to do this claustrophobic missing kid movie so soon after "Panic Room" is the biggest mystery here. She is just fine and I guess this is the sort of strong woman role her fans like to see her in. Everybody supporting her is at least passable, but she pretty much carries the film on her own. She also looks her age and does not resemble the frightening, stoned image that has been staring down at us from billboards for the past month.
Note to airplane people like myself: you might be best off skipping this flight. Some very, very laugh inducing things happen onboard this "A474" super jumbo, which looks a lot like the Airbus A380. I especially enjoyed a freakishly convenient systems patch panel wired with...1/4" phone jacks.