Review of Hours (2013) by Tri S — 03 Dec 2013

This upcoming movie was described to me as the latest thriller directed and written by Eric Heisserer. Sadly, that there was nothing good (except, maybe, Génesis Rodríguez) in it to thrill me. It was just a melodrama which had elements of survival story to fool us into believing that something like this is possible. The film stars Paul Walker, Génesis Rodríguez, TJ Hassan, and Judd Lormand. The only reason why this will be remembered is that this is Walker's last film. Two weeks prior to the film's release, Walker died in a car accident in Los Angeles, California on November 30, 2013.

The film is set in 2005, during the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. Nolan (Paul Walker) is in the hospital with his wife who is ready to give birth five weeks before she was due. But, she dies... In disbelief, the father of a newborn baby stays in shock. What should be one of the happiest days of Nolan's life quickly spirals out of control during the wake of a Hurricane that floods the hospital and causes failures in the power supply, Nolan faces a life-or-death situation when no one returns to help and struggles on his own to keep his infant daughter alive inside a Neonatal ventilator, as minute-by-minute passes, the ventilator runs out of power and the minutes become long hours. Literally! I, thought that this movie is longer than three hours, that was how it felt (my copy was 1 h 36 minutes). I just wanted to be over.

Someone noticed that "an ingeniously simple setup is cunningly exploited for maximum suspense...", and that is true - but the type of that suspense was such that created annoyance rather than excitement. Film Critic Steve Pulaski of Influx Magazine stated, "Hours works because, once more, it proves a little story can go a long way thematically and that bigger, deeper themes can surface when there's small-scale filmmaking at hand...", and the only excuse for him would be writing this that he was so high that didn't really see what was happening on the screen.

Nothing in there which should attract an attention of a film lover.