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Breakdown
***
Cinema
Releases - May 1,
1998
Rated on a 4-star
scale; USA; Directed by Jonathan Mostow. Written by Jonathan Mostow, Sam
Montgomery. Starring Kurt
Russell, J.T. Walsh, Kathleen Quinlan, M.C. Gainey, Jack Noseworthy, Rex
Linn, Ritch Brinkley, Moira Harri.
What is it about the desert? Here is as open a
space as you're ever likely to see, yet it seems the most claustrophobic.
It's no mystery, really, and no reverse psychology. It's simply the same
extreme feeling of isolation that you'd get from a tiny, stuffy room. Worse,
even -- if the desert turns to hell, where is there to run
to?
Movies like Jon Mostow's
"Breakdown" know this nightmare as well as we do. In the opening
scenes, Jeff Taylor (Kurt Russell) is driving with his wife Amy (Kathleen
Quinlan) to San Diego, when their car breaks down. A pleasant enough trucker
(J.T. Walsh) stops to help them, and the it is arranged that he and Amy will
drive to a phone for help while Jeff waits with the car. While they are gone,
Jeff sorts out his car problem and goes on ahead to the rendezvous, only
to discover that there is nobody there. He drives around frustratedly until
he does indeed track down the truck. The exact same trucker steps out and
announces he's never seen poor Jeff in his life. A cop Jeff stops sees nothing
suspicious in the truck, and questions Jeff's reliability.
The people in the movie are divided into the camps
of those who think Jeff is crazy and those who are out to get him.
Inevitably, the kidnapping is part of something more elaborate than sick
fun, a scheme designed to squeeze money out of our bankrupt hero, who the
dumb redneck kidnappers assume is rich.
The fighting back by Jeff develops pretty believably,
and the scenery is vivid. The effect of the sweltering, confusing, nauseating
sun is obvious. The violence is noticeable, gripping, shocking. Every sweat
drop causes tension, some of the horrible surroundings are easily recognised:
at one point, Jeff feels real sick and runs into a small bathroom, only to
find the air gone, the tiles dirty, the wood scummy and rotten. Nobody who
has had to resort to going to the bathroom in the desert will fail to recognise
the moment.
Kurt Russell's performance is convincing, although
we've seen similar work before -- most recently by Sean Penn in "U-Turn".
Kathleen Quinlan is good to see as his wife but she doesn't appear much.
J.T. Walsh, always reliable, is stunning. His villain is not as obviously
cruel or menacing as The Hitcher or Freddie Kreuger, but his seemingly normal
appearance, his friendly approach to his family, and otherwise blank-slate
expression subtly exude disturbing dementia.
The film is quite short, and contains too many
longeurs for its length, but it's got a decent storyline (taken from the
European film "The Vanishing"), a solid cast who deliver the kind of performances
we'd hope for from them, and tense action. That action gets a bit too grisly
and ridiculous in the last few minutes, taking itself to be more frightening
and serious than it really is. And the penultimate shot is quite unnecessary,
going from justice for the bad-guy to gratuitous sadism.
Still, for a B-list, Paramount Pictures, 90-minute
remake thriller that hasn't had much hype, "Breakdown" is just about worth
the price of admission. That may not be the most unequivocal rave, but it
is more praise than many films deserve.
COPYRIGHT©
1998 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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