No Escape

Released:  August 26^th, 2015

Rated:  R

Distributor:  The Weinstein Company

Starring:  Owen Wilson, Lake Bell, Sterling Jerins, Claire Geare, Pierce Brosnan

Directed by:  John Erick Dowdle

Written by:  John Erick Dowdle, Drew Dowdle

Personal Bias Alert:  likes thrillers, dislikes cheap tricks to evoke sympathy

7.8 of 10

            The harrowing thriller No Escape is bound to be divisive.  It’s a technically astounding, borderline xenophobic film, your enjoyment of which will depend entirely on how much you can stomach sustained fear and inadvertent racism.  The film would be easier to condemn if you could detect a whiff of actual social politics, but the unfortunate setting of an unnamed Asian country falling into a civil war seems to be little more than a simplistic surrounding for a narrowly focused action thriller.

            The film is only concerned with the survival of one American family, the Dwyers, led by Owen Wilson’s Jack and Lake Bell’s Annie.  The couple have two young daughters who’re old enough to run but young enough to make untimely demands like needing a bathroom.  Evoking sympathy for this group is almost as easy as a paint by the numbers kit, and while No Escape does tread into emotionally manipulative territory, Wilson and Bell always manage to yank it back to something resembling reality.  This film probably doesn’t deserve their talents, but it allows them to show off skills the two traditionally comedic actors haven’t flexed in some time.  They get down and dirty with the action, pulling off stunts and pitching the unending peril with great finesse, but it’s the quiet moments between the two, the exchanged glances and pantomimed plans, that really sell their concerns and desires.  Their world has been quickly whittled down to death or survival, and all they want is to get their family out intact.  The lengths they are forced to go to have a great effect on their relationship, and watching these subtle changes play out between two great actors elevates No Escape far above what was likely on the page.

            The script, written by brothers Drew and John Eric Dowdle, is an admittedly well-paced piece, if a bit too stuck in genre conventions.  The two previously made last year’s horror misfire As Above, So Below, a piece that took a great setting and fumbled the execution.  Their genre contributions fare much better here, coming up with a solid if uninspired cavalcade of set pieces for the Dwyers to survive.  The script is still clearly what holds the film back, though.  There’s too many half-hearted attempts at humor and one incredibly ridiculous action movie moment, but it’s that darn setting that’ll really have you twitching with discomfort.  The decision to put their family survival story in a foreign land and have them targeted simply for being American had to have been made early on, and while the brothers did write in a vague explanation for why the natives hate the Americans, it never feels like more than a half-baked write-off.  Now, if they had completely ignored this point or made every single native a violent revolutionary, then the film would’ve quickly turned into an undefendable piece.  As is, it feels like an unfortunate decision by two guys who didn’t understand the blowback such dismissive treatment would evoke.

            Luckily, this unfortunate decision is drowned out by the sustained action, which throws you from one horrifying situation to another.  You quickly form an emotional bond with the Dwyers, and watching them go through the wringer is an absorbing, tiring experience.  John Eric Dowdle finally shows a bit of pizazz in his direction of the various action scenes, alternatively presenting them with gritty realism and an immaculately smooth style.  Everything in these scenes from the choreography to the sound design is spot-on, with extra props going to editor Elliot Greenberg for putting it all in perfect little places. 

            No Escape does so much right, and yet one uncomfortably poor decision during development nearly derails the whole thing.  Whether the film has crossed that ever-shifting socio-political line is for you to decide, but at least watching it will challenge you to draw a line in the sand.  You might even enjoy the ride while you’re at it.

Other Notes:

Ø  Pierce Brosnan is sort of wasted.

Ø  The camerawork is rather shaky, but it was never too much for me.  Understand that I am also seemingly immune to motion sickness.

Ø  This film understands that it’s much more disturbing to watch a mother shielding her child’s eyes than to see all the mayhem around them.

Marley & Me

Released:  December 25^th, 2008

Rated:  PG

Distributor:  20^th Century Fox

Starring:  Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston, Eric Dane, Alan Arkin

Directed by:  David Frankel

Written by:  Scott Frank, Don Roos

Personal Bias Alert:  wasn’t expecting much, a sucker for dogs

6.7 of 10

            There must’ve been some big piles of Kleenex on Christmas Day, 2008.  Seriously, the theaters showing Marley & Me should’ve replaced the cup holders with trash receptacles, because everyone showing up that day for this family-friendly dogpile was leaving a snot-filled heap.  Not that any of us should’ve been surprised; the great tragedy of dog ownership is known to all, but the wallop of authenticity that Marley & Me hits its audience with is a shocking surprise after a first act of bad dog hijinks.

            The Me in Marley & Me refers to newspaper man John Grogan (Owen Wilson), who adopts the bullheaded lab Marley to stall he and his wife’s progression towards children.  John still has vague aspirations to be a big-time reporter but instead winds up as a columnist.  Without thought, he writes about Marley.  The dog is a bit of a terror, and his eating, shredding, and peeing escapades takes up an unneeded 40 minutes of this film.  These jokes are all slapstick and schmaltz, with the lab wrecking everything and leaving John with nothing to do but smile, dumbfounded at his tornado of a pet.  To call this section repetitive would be an understatement, and just when it seems destined wear down everyone’s patience, the film turns on the drop of a dime.

            Grogan, who wrote the memoir on which the film’s based, must’ve experienced a similarly abrupt turn in his own life when his first child was lost to a miscarriage.  As depicted in the film, he and his wife, Jenny (Jennifer Aniston), return home not knowing what to do.  Marley, following instinct, makes the right call and mopes with Jenny, unknowingly nudging the family to confront what’s happened so they can move on.  It’s this moment and others like it that show a dog’s worth, and this fictional version of Marley proves to be worth every cent of his damages.  After that, a string of healthy children appear and Grogan’s career takes off, moving the family in unexpected directions but always finding a humorous anchor in Marley’s consistent wreckage. 

            The film is markedly more serious and slightly less schmaltzy after the miscarriage, and the realities that the couple encounter as they transition into middle age are remarkably well-portrayed.  Aniston and Wilson take a satisfying bite out of the mix of comedy and drama, turning John and Jenny into characters you want to root for even when they’re coming apart at the seams.  What the audience becomes invested in is their burgeoning family.  Marley’s just there to push the couple past the starting line.

            As enriching as this serious turn is, it skirts the real thorny issues this couple certainly faced.  Even when things become dark, John’s oafish good humor keeps thing from appearing hopeless.  Any emotionally charged moments are quickly washed down with a shot of sweet memories, peppering in just enough weight for the adults to be satisfied without scaring away the kids.  This is a family movie, after all, so it can’t get too real.

            Even though it can’t go all the way, what’s great about Marley & Me is that Grogan put himself and his family in there.  The slapstick comedy and overreliance on cute moments gets in the way, but the ten-plus year journey that John, Jenny, and Marley go on is substantive enough to get behind.  The ending is one of the most overblown odes I’ve seen, but for those who’ve loved a dog, every moment rings true.  Now hand me the Kleenex.

Other Notes:

Ø  This is a very racy PG.

Ø  I was dangerously close to checking out after the first 30 minutes.  That destructive dog stuff is just not funny to me.

Ø  This is one of only four films that has ever made me cry.