Review of Breakdown (1997) by Corey N — 21 Aug 2007

Jeff and Amy Taylor are moving to California and must drive across the country. When they find themselves stranded in the middle of a desert with hardly anyone or anything around, their trip comes to a sudden halt.

Amy had taken a ride with a friendly trucker to a small diner to call for help, but after a long time, Jeff becomes worried. He finds that no one in the diner has seen or heard from his wife.

When he finds the trucker who gave Amy the ride, the trucker swears he has never seen her.

Now Jeff must attempt to find his wife, who has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom..

A thriller that is part 'the hitcher' and part 'duel', what makes Breakdown such an enthralling movie, is that the premise seems so real and could happen to anybody, anywhere. but the film wouldn't be what it is, if it wasn't for the great performances from Walsh and Russell, and the eerie cinematography.

The last ten minutes does let the film down a little though, when it goes into Terminator overdrive and everything starts to go bang!! (maybe Mostow was preparing for 'rise of the machines'?).

But for the most part the film is tense and scary, you cannot help but put yourself in Russells shoes and feel what he would be feeling, anger, Paranoia and the thought of losing his wife, just for being different.

Will make you think about long road journeys in the future.

Very good.