Review of No Escape (2015) by Dawdlingpoet — 25 Nov 2021

This is an action/thriller film with themes including survival, political upheavel and deception.

I felt this was a particularly gripping and tense film from quite early on. The plot is slightly slow to start with but once the main plot comes to light, it really does start with a bang (almost literally) and the pace becomes much faster, barely ever slowing down. I felt like I was on the edge of my seat throughout and I found it relatively engrossing. The camerawork is quite disorientating, in that the film features a lot of very jerky camera movements but then I suppose that just highlights how fast paced and chaotic the situation would have been (if it had been real, of course).

I think this film was very much helped by the fact that the plot did seem quite plausible - certainly tensions have been quite high in that part of the world in the recent past and I also felt that the cast did particularly well at playing their roles, with the children seeming genuinely scared and confused, thus playing their roles well and the parents also doing a very good job at trying their best to keep themselves together and out of danger, as difficult as that is. I felt that this film made a good use of the music, with good incidental music used. Some of the sounds played are quite chilling, moderately loud thumping and banging style noises which may make you a bit jumpy at times, which I presume to be what the filmmakers intended, of course. I found myself feeling quite sorry for the main characters - certainly I can only imagine how scary it must be to be in their position, not understanding the local language and with writing being in a different alphabet and everything, I found myself hoping they'd manage to find safety, while it was (understandably) upsetting to see, though only in passing, the numerous dead bodies of locals and foreigners who hadn't managed to get away. I did think that in some parts of the film, the way the characters managed to pull themselves away from very precarious situations seemed a little lucky for them and perhaps I wouldn't really believe it would have happened in the way its shown, although I was mostly glad that they did, so there is a slight lack of entire realism in parts maybe but it didn't spoil the film for me entirely or anything like that.

Content wise, this film features some moderately strong language, relatively graphic bloody violence, including, as mentioned, brief images of bloody corpses, people with head wounds etc. There is a scene in which rape appears to be threatened, although no explicit nudity is shown. Throughout the film there is a strong sense of tension and threat which could frighten and upset young or nervous viewers. The film carries a 15 rating due to this.

I felt, overall, that this is one of the more gripping action based thrillers I've seen - it has a fast pace once the main plot gets going and it doesn't let up much at all. Its a fairly engrossing watch and I thought the character development was reasonably well done, as I found myself feeling relatively attached to the children and hoping the parents could find safety for them all. Its probably not perfect, with the camerawork maybe making some potentially feel a little motion sick and one or two plot detaisl seeming less plausible than others but it is a very good film in general.

I'd also like to add that while there are the ocassional scene in which I felt, if it were real, it would be unlikely for things to work out the way it did, the characters do not all manage to get away unscathed, suffice to say. Pretty much all the featured characters are affected physically in one way or another, although I won't go in to any more details for obvious reasons (spoiler prevention).

I would recommend this film. I felt it did well at creating and maintaining a very tense and gripping atmosphere throughout, it features a good cast and a good use of music. The only downsides are that there is a lot of jerky and thus disorientating camerawork, which may frustrate some and probably isn't great for anyone prone to motion sickness perhaps? and also I felt that in some parts, what happened didn't seem entirely believable or realistic but overall it seemed pretty plausible and it was certainly a good film thats worth a watch. I think it does well at showing the human impact of such violent, sudden turns of events on unsuspecting tourists.