Review of 88 Minutes (2007) by Maria S — 18 May 2016

There are very few films I would call misogynistic. Even Michael Bay's Transformers movies had the decency to give their female leads at least one or two moments each where they contributed something to the plot. Not in this film. Here, they only exist to get brutalized, act as eye candy, be exposited at, or mess things up for our male protagonist. The first woman we see is getting brutalized by a murderer, the next who has any bearing on the plot we see is wearing nothing but an apron, brushing her teeth performing stretches. At least in the former case, the scene contributed something to the narrative, but here, it adds nothing. It does not advance the plot, and it only tells us that our lead character is willing to sleep around with women at least a decade younger than him. His secretary reveals dangerous personal information about him after getting drunk on a night out. One of his female students spends some time with him and, oops, she has a crazy ex husband now out for our lead's head!

Now, in order to understand what really makes me hate this movie with a passion means I have to spoil the film's big reveal. So here it is: The one behind the attacks was none other than a woman who defended the serial killer we saw at the start of the film in court! Her entire motivation is that she's madly in love with him! The moment that really made me go, "Screw this movie" was when Pacino's character asks, "Are you going to kill me too?" and the killer says, "Only if he wants me to" in a seductive tone. She has no agency! None of the women do! The fact that the film can't decide whether it wants us to doubt out lead-despite the fact that we see the first killing take place-or whether it wants us to side with him is frustrating enough, but knowing the inept way it treats its cast and characters just adds insult to injury.