Red Eye
By: Mark Runyon | Category: On DVD | 08/31/05 | 10:25 PM
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Grade: B | Genre: Suspense
Summary: If you are edging to see McAdams at her best this summer, check out Wedding Crashers. After that if you are still needing your Rachel fix and are geared up for a taut, no-brainer thriller, get a ticket on the Red Eye.
Wes Craven (Nighmare on Elm Street, Scream Trilogy) has decided that his days as storyteller of suspense, horror and thrillers have been scared out of him as he presents us with the final chapter in his film catalog Red Eye. This film seems to be the desperate Hail Mary pass, attempting to salvage a career riddled with few hits and lots of misses. Red Eye recruits fast rising stars Rachel McAdams (the Notebook, Wedding Crashers) and Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later, Batman Begins) to tell this thriller with a touch of political intrigue and life threatening moments at 30,000 feet. Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has now turned off the fasten seatbelts sign. Feel free to torture the passenger next to you. |
Our film opens with Lisa Risert (McAdams) racing through the Houston terminal to catch her plane home to Miami where her dad and demanding management job at a plush hotel await her. Well for all her hurrying, the plane is ultimately delayed, which puts her into the line of sight of crystal blue eyed Jackson (Murphy) sitting at the airport bar gnawing on a plate of nachos. He has an uncanny knack for choosing her alcoholic beverage of choice, and he possesses an ease about him that Lisa finds very comforting to talk to. They quickly surrender their stranger coats before parting ways to board the plane. Well wouldn't you know it, they're sitting right smack next to one another on the red eye to Miami. What are the chances? He softly coaxes her up into the air, keeping her mind focused on her family and not the engine that, in her mind, could take a swan dive off the wing. Her fear of flying lives to panic another day. Right as she's starting to have one of those "Oh my God, he's so adorable" moments, Jackson's dark side starts to bare its pointy fangs. Our first clue should have been his name, Jack Rippen, but even someone with absolute cads for parents should be awarded the benefit of the doubt right?
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| Red Eye |
Starring: Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Brian Cox, Jack Scalia & Jayma Mays
Director: Wes Craven |
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| View the Trailer (Quicktime) |
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Well Jack didn't earn too many 'plays well with others' marks in kindergarten as he snaps at Lisa when asked what he does for a living, and proceeds to get mondo creepy when he starts saying things like her family is his business. This is when we find out his business associate is sitting outside her father's home waiting to kill him if she doesn't make a call, averting the Homeland Security Chief's room assignment to a more assassination friendly locale. As always time is of the essence. Any move she makes to call out for help or draw attention to herself only endangers her unknowing father on the opposite side of the country.
The closed and cramped quarters of the flight lend themselves well to knitting this tense atmosphere. The idea that she is surrounded by people, yet unable to scream for help is an intriguing setup. Watching her try to wiggle out messages for help aids in tightening the tension of the scene. Between donning the burlap Scarecrow sack mask in Batman Begins and now as wheezy Jack, Murphy is getting a real taste for playing striking villains and propping up all that high praise that is being showered on him right now. Rachel McAdams does her usual fabulous job as the helpless woman, backed into a corner, who turns out to be not as helpless as she at first seemed. She really helps us feel this element of panic and desperation that coarses through her as the gears of her mind furiously turn, trying to work out how to save her father without it meaning certain death for the Homeland Security Chief. I'm convinced the biggest seller for her taking this part was that she'd get to do her best Jennifer Garner impression, kicking ass with that fearsome lacrosse stick. Imagine how much pent up frustration she was able to burn through during the making of this film. Anyone got an action role for this talented chick? Even Meaner Girls perhaps?
While this is a solid, intriguing thriller, it doesn't go above and beyond the call of duty in any way. The story is a bit formulaic in its layout and pacing, and you see a lot of the twists coming from a mile away. With that said, it still possesses that classic tension which makes a film like this work, and our leads couldn't be better in their assigned roles. So if you are edging to see McAdams at her best this summer, check out Wedding Crashers. After that if you are still needing your Rachel fix and are geared up for a taut, no-brainer thriller, get a ticket on the Red Eye.
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