Rating: D
Dir: Joss Refauvelet
Star: Monique Rosario
Rarely has a film plummeted so hard as a result of the very final shot. Up until that point, this was probably looking at a C grade or thereabouts. It had an interesting idea, but was probably too ambitious a concept for it to pull off. Not an entirely wasted effort though – or so it seemed until the final few minutes, where everything changed. When that last shot appeared, the first word to pass my lips was, “Really?” This was quickly followed by, “You have got to be fucking kidding me.” Such was the impact, and not in a good way. I desperately want to spoil it. But I would hate to rob you of the genuine sense of anger I felt, at the realization the previous eighty minutes had been a complete waste of my time.
It takes place in the middle of a desert wilderness where Aamal (Rosario) regains consciousness, to find herself shackled to the bed of a dilapidated pick-up truck, with no memory of what happened or why someone, very obviously, wishes her ill. There’s a gun on the hood, and she has a couple of bullets. [I was pleased that the “shooting off the chains” thing went as badly here, as I suspect it would in reality – considerably less successful than the way it’s depicted in most movies] There’s a somewhat working radio, through which she communicates with two people: one of whom might be her kidnapper. Trying to figure out which one, is part of the puzzle Aamal faces.
You’d better get used to Aamal, since you will be spending the entire film – by which I mean, almost every single shot – in her company. You gradually learn little bits about her background, such as that she has a daughter, or her employment history, which has some questionable elements to it. Things are increasingly blurry, the further we get into this, not least because another version of Aamal shows up, and starts haranguing her. It’s clear that she is carrying a lot of guilt about… stuff. Is this enough to sustain an entire film? Probably not. You likely need a more compelling central motive, and though Rosario isn’t bad, you want a lead who can hold the audience’s attention completely, e.g. Ryan Reynolds in Buried. Because they’re all we’ve got.
Still, I kept watching here, putting together the various pieces of data, and trying to come to the right conclusion about what lay behind this bizarre scenario. Turns out I need not have bothered, because none of it matters in the slightest. I might have been better placed to tolerate the way this ended, had it informed things from the very beginning. Instead, it initially appears almost entirely grounded, and it’s only near the end where you have any reason to suspect this may not be the case. It feels entirely as if Refauvelet half-assed his script, and had to ask his brother for advice on how the movie should end. His brother was aged eleven.