Review of No Escape (2015) by Dave M — 27 Aug 2015

"Intense!" That's the word I heard myself use most often as I was telling another member of the Movie Fan Community Facebook Page staff about "No Escape" (R, 1:43). That is the single best word I know to describe this action thriller. The film is SO intense that it almost feels like a horror movie. No wonder. It was directed by John Erick Dowdle, who previously directed the underrated "Quarantine" (2008), 2010's "Devil" and 2014's "As Above, So Below". In addition to helming this one, he also co-wrote the script with his brother, Drew Dowdle, as he did with "Quarantine" and "As Above". Yet, "No Escape" is not a horror flick. This movie's thrills don't come from outer space or any supernatural realm. The dangers in this film come from what can be the most frighteningly real source of all - our fellow human beings.

Owen Wilson and Lake Bell star as Jack and Annie Dwyer, a Texas couple who are moving, with their young daughters, Lucy (Sterling Jerins) and Breeze (Claire Geare) to an unnamed country in Southeast Asia for Jack's new job. Jack is an engineer who has been hired by an American company that's building up the water infrastructure in that country. There aren't many westerners in sight, but on the plane, the Dwyers meet a British man named Hammond (Pierce Brosnan), who makes frequent trips to this country. He seems mostly interested in partying and enjoying the country's "charms". Hammond's hedonistic persona makes Annie a little uncomfortable, but, once the plane lands, he connects the new arrivals with a local taxi driver (Sahajak Boonthanakit) whom people call Kenny Rogers, because of his obsession with the singer. Hammond and "Rogers" drop off the Dwyer's safely at their luxury hotel, but all six of these characters will meet again - soon, and under very different circumstances.

Unbeknownst to them, there's a very strong undercurrent of anti-western sentiment in the country where the Dwyer family has just landed. A dramatic flash-forward scene which opens the movie gives an indication of how dangerous the situation really is, and foreshadows what's to come. The morning after arriving, Jack leaves the hotel in search of an American newspaper, only to find himself witnessing the beginning of a bloody revolution. Jack has to avoid murderous mobs to get back to the hotel and protect his family before it's too late. Thus begins an extremely violent and extraordinarily dangerous odyssey of trying to get the family together, get them out of the hotel and through what amounts to "killing fields" in the streets and to the American embassy in the hope that they'll be safe there.

The next 24 hours are overflowing with seemingly insurmountable challenges and paralyzing frightening situations. Between the Dwyers and safety stand men who are as ruthless as ISIS and as anti-western as the terrorists who killed almost 200 people in Mumbai, India in 2008, and this is a place that's basically as lawless and unstable as many locations in Africa and the Middle East. Basically, this family of four, and the few others who are brave enough to help them, are in the midst of a perfect storm of the worst of humanity in the 21st century... which makes for an incredibly thrilling and well-produced movie.

The strength of "No Escape" starts with its cast. Owen Wilson might not seem like an obvious choice to be given the lead in an action thriller, until you remember a few things about Wilson: One of his first major roles was in the action war drama "Behind Enemy Lines" (2001), his persona in most of his roles since (even though they're mostly comedic) makes him the perfect loving and devoted family man, and he's also a damn fine actor. Lake Bell may not be a household name, but she is a recognizable face to frequent moviegoers and she delivers an amazing performance in this film. The actresses who play the two Dwyer girls hold their own very well. No surprise, when you realize that the older of the two is (at the tender age of 11) also a veteran of big movies such as "Dark Places", "The Conjuring" and "World War Z". Pierce Brosnan plays his most layered character in years and the Southeast Asian actors are universally solid in their various roles and never hit a false note.

The directing and screenwriting of the Dowdle Brothers give us an unbelievably effective action thriller. The movie starts off with a bang, then allows us to get to know the main characters just enough to care about them before plunging them and us into an unforgettably tense experience. The bright colors of the cinematography at the beginning of the film put the beauty of the region on full display, before those colors drain from the screen as the audience feels the color draining from their faces. The violence shown is bloody, but never gratuitous. It's mostly the film's tension that makes it so powerful.

The combined intensity of the story's excitement and its empathic characters is almost beyond compare. Movies like "Red Corner" (1997) and "Crash" (2004) remain alive in my memory partly due to one or two especially tense and emotional scenes. Never did I imagine that one movie could pack so many such scenes into a single story. Before I saw this movie, I wondered whether the title "No Escape" was either a spoiler or typical Hollywood hyperbole. Now that I know the answer, I realize that the question is practically irrelevant. The main meaning "No Escape" carries for me now is a description of the place that the experience now holds in my movie memory. Intensely entertaining, "No Escape" gets an "A+".