Review of 11:14 (2004) by Susan R — 26 Mar 2010

"Fate can change in seconds".

The events leading up to an 11:14 PM car crash, from five very different perspectives.

REVIEW.

Greg Marcks offers us in '11:14' that rare breed of film that keeps us on the edge of our seats for the entire 95 minutes running time. This strangely wonderful tale embraces the ideas of consequences and serendipity by unraveling a story of two deaths that affect the lives of eight kids and two parents, each with separate perceptions of shared incidents, and all of those perceptions intertwine in the most unique way imaginable. This is not a teen horror flick, not an attempt to do an imitation cheap movie life 'Blair Witch Project' look-alikes. '11:14' is simply a fine script played with comedy and tragedy and wide-eyed wonderment by a top notch cast of actors.

To relate the tale would to defray the anxiety Marcks creates in his writing. It is sufficient to say that little nerdy people in a small town somewhere are all caught up in two deaths, a thwarted robbery, a case of missing bodies, and a final core explanation of how the whole foolish mess got started. Along the way there are hilarious moments of accidental death during intercourse in a grave yard, a severed penis and its impact on hit and run kids, a rather randy and hormone driven trashy girl whose parents get caught up in the scheme of things... and that is only starters.

The exceptional cast includes Hilary Swank (with braces), Patrick Swayze (with body padding), Barbara Hershey obsessed with opera, Rachel Leigh Cook as the promiscuous round robin girl, Henry Thomas as a drunk driver, Ben Foster as the genital loser, Shawn Hatosy, Blake Heron, Stark Sands, Colin Hanks, and Gregg Clark as the revolving police officer who tries to keep up and make sense of the mess.

The cinematography is beautifully handled by Shane Hurlbut who manages to keep the nighttime ambiance all centered on the 11:14 PM restrictions of the action. But above all it is the brilliant script and tight direction by Marcks that makes this the strong, grossly overlooked sleeper of a movie that it is.