BREAKDOWN
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1997 Michael John Legeros
(Paramount)
Directed by Jonathan Mostow
Written by Jonathan Mostow and Sam Montgomery, based on the story
by Mostow
Cast Kurt Russell, J.T. Walsh, Kathleen Quinlan, M.C. Gainey,
Jack Noseworthy, Rex Linn, Ritch Brinkley
MPAA Rating "R" (presumably for violence and language)
Running Time 95 minutes
Reviewed at General Cinemas at Pleasant Valley, Raleigh, NC
(26APR97)
==
Here's something that you don't see every day: a Hollywood action- thriller that knows when to say when. Never-aging actors Kurt Russell and Kathleen Quinlan play a California-bound couple, whose bright red, brand-spanking-new Jeep Cherokee (with Massachusetts plates) breaks down on a secondary road, somewhere in the Southwest. A trucker (J.T. Walsh, Our Favorite Heavy) stops and offers them a ride. She goes, he stays, and, not much later, she's nowhere to be found. Russell goes slightly nuts, flags down the trucker, and hears those words that we never want to hear outside of a movie theater: "I've never seen you before in my life." And you can take it from there. (Or watch the trailer, which reveals a bit more.)
BREAKDOWN is balanced on every front, from pacing to photography to suspense to sound effects. (Is there a sweeter music than that of the shifting of truck gears?) Most impressive: director and co-screenwriter Jonathan Mostow actually allows his everyman hero to *behave* like an everyman. (Well, okay, Russell does impersonate Indiana Jones in one scene.) This guy has to think on his feet and, often, he's at a loss for what to do. And while some of his decisions are better than others, *all* of our hero's actions are based on such determined determination that you may catch yourself trying to talk back to the screen! "No, don't do that, do this!" Just rent the whole damn theater for yourself.
Superb.
Grade: A
--
Mike Legeros - Movie Hell http://www.n-vision.com/hell
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