No Escape
Directed by: John Erick Dowdle
Written by: John Erick Dowdle & Drew Dowdle
Starring: Owen Wilson, Lake Bell, Sterling Jerins, Claire Geare, Pierce Brosnan, Sahajak Boonthanakit
Action/Thriller - 103 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 26 Aug 2015
Written by: John Erick Dowdle & Drew Dowdle
Starring: Owen Wilson, Lake Bell, Sterling Jerins, Claire Geare, Pierce Brosnan, Sahajak Boonthanakit
Action/Thriller - 103 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 26 Aug 2015
The ignorant American is a stereotype pushed in both reality and on the movie screen. Foreigners perceive American tourists as loud, aggressive, English only, and lacking any and all situational awareness of the local culture they are currently immersed in. Owen Wilson’s Jack Dwyer personifies this stereotype in No Escape; a slow-starting story about a down on their luck family newly arrived in Southeast Asia. The plodding beginning is merely a ruse before the audience is blindsided with grotesque violence, brutal murders, and unspeakable events guaranteed to give the two little girls in the film a lifetime of PTSD.
I say only Southeast Asia because the country’s name is intentionally omitted. Based on the geography, it is obviously Cambodia. The brothers who wrote the film, John and Drew Dowdle, based the script on John’s earlier experiences in Thailand and even shot the film there because current geopolitical conditions nullified shooting in Cambodia. The revolutionaries running amok in the streets shooting bystanders in the head and running them over with trucks are reminiscent of the Khmer Rouge for if you are either a foreigner or not one of the crazed, red bandana wearing maniacs, you are fair game for extermination. Titled The Coup until a few months prior to release, do not confuse 2015's No Escape with 1994's No Escape starring Ray Liotta, even though the chances of survival in both films is alarmingly low.
I say only Southeast Asia because the country’s name is intentionally omitted. Based on the geography, it is obviously Cambodia. The brothers who wrote the film, John and Drew Dowdle, based the script on John’s earlier experiences in Thailand and even shot the film there because current geopolitical conditions nullified shooting in Cambodia. The revolutionaries running amok in the streets shooting bystanders in the head and running them over with trucks are reminiscent of the Khmer Rouge for if you are either a foreigner or not one of the crazed, red bandana wearing maniacs, you are fair game for extermination. Titled The Coup until a few months prior to release, do not confuse 2015's No Escape with 1994's No Escape starring Ray Liotta, even though the chances of survival in both films is alarmingly low.
Jack (Wilson, 2014's Inherent Vice) is an out of work engineer fresh off the plane with his wife Annie (Lake Bell, 2014's Mr. Peabody & Sherman) and their two young daughters, Lucy and Beeze (Sterling Jerins (2013's World War Z) and Claire Geare). Annie is a reluctant travel companion undergoing an overt culture shock meltdown. The coup plotters assassinate the country’s ruler before the Dwyers even arrive in country yet they remain oblivious to this event until well into the slaughter. Befriending the Dwyers on the plane and kindly escorting them to their posh hotel is British ex-pat Hammond (Pierce Brosnan, 2014's The November Man). Hammond proudly points out this is his 15th trip to the country because everything is so cheap, especially the women.
When all hell breaks loose in the streets, Jack is unfortunately ferreting out a newspaper and staring up at the sky. The movie sprints out of its doldrums and doesn’t let off the gas pedal as Jack has no idea what to do in this situation. An effective choice by the Dowdle brothers was to make Jack an ordinary guy; he is not an action hero and has no idea how to kill another person, let alone best one in hand-to-hand combat. Annie’s run-in with the mob is one of the film’s most frightening scenes as she can hear the couple next door horrifically hacked to death as the goons then turn their attention to her door. There are dozens of scenes where the entire Dwyer family comes inches from certain annihilation leaving this audience member exhausted by the end.
Let’s talk about the kids. Multiple studios passed on No Escape because they did not want to make a such a disturbing film involving young children. I can’t blame them. I recommend parents of young children steer clear; it will make you think about situations you really don’t want to think about. From this point of view, No Escape is scarier than any horror film because while I am pretty sure a poltergeist is not going to infect my home any time soon, the idea of being a stranger in a strange land and the fear of the unknown is in the realm of the possible. If it can happen in the real world, it is that much scarier on screen. The Dowdle brothers accomplish their intent; I was straight up shocked and mortified for the Dwyer family. John Dowdle doubles as director while his brother Drew produces. They are no strangers to horror as their previous film is 2014's As Above, So Below, a found footage horror film set in the Parisian catacombs.
We’re not exactly sure as to the motives behind all the mayhem. Pierce Brosnan gives a speech drawing suspicions away from outright xenophobia very briefly showing the audience there are two sides to every story, but we’re back soon enough to foreign-tongued, machete-wielding rapists and child murderers. Another annoyance is the two girls do exactly what young girls would do in real life; they are obstinate, say ridiculous things at the worst times, and make far too much ancillary noise. It borders on outright frustration because we know no matter what peril we are facing now, one of the girls is going to do something to make it that much worse. It becomes an expectation. Yet, the Dowdles chose to make No Escape family-centric. They could have proceeded with older kids, just one kid, or even no kids; they purposefully compound the fear and consequences by involving children so young and vulnerable.
Casting Owen Wilson and Lake Bell was also a gamble. These two are comedians. Wilson dabbled in action before with 2001's Behind Enemy Lines but his usual mien is goofball. Bell is best known for her role in Children’s Hospital, a Comedy Central satire skewering TV hospital dramas, and 2013's In A World…, her film about female preview voiceover artists. It would never pass the plausibility test for either Wilson or Bell to kill someone with their bare hands, but hey, when it’s between a bad guy and your kids, you do what you’ve got to do.
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