Review of No Escape (2015) by Quincy T — 07 Sep 2015

Banged up abroad: Hide your wife, hide your kids.

The best appeal from No Escape is not the anarchic story, return of Owen Wilson to action genre or typical underlying hidden agenda, but the intensely involving atmosphere. The feeling of riot is easily translated on-screen with fast editing and presentable family. Its perilous journey of survival is gripping and while it does have a few problems at latter half, it does enough for an enjoyable thriller.

Owen Wilson plays as Jack, a father and husband who must relocate his entire family to an exotic country for his new job. Unfortunately for him, the moment he touches down on said country a widespread unrest happens. Angry local mob decides to kill foreigner for alleged economy monopoly, not the kind of activity you'd find on tourist pamphlet, and Jack now must use his wit and lots of luck to save himself and his family.

Visual is its greatest strength. It has just the right touch of realism from the setting and over-the-top sequences for dire situation. For most of the time camera follows Jack very closely, almost as in documentary perspective but still manages to find the dramatic angles when needs be. It's a great vehicle to create suspense and it has just enough steam to be engaging until the end.

Jack's family of his wife and two little girls is definitely a decent on-screen characters. It plays the right scenes to tug sympathy from audience. When the moment these girls whimper plays, though the acting or material doesn't hit the realistic effect intended, might even be slightly cheap, it remains a palpable plot device.

The latter half fares slightly worse than its high octane opening. There are just too many Deus Ex Machina moments when stuff explodes or help comes at the nick of time to be believable. Furthermore, the propaganda agenda feels like it's shoehorned in, mainly to introduce Pierce Brosnan's character. The backstory of the danger itself is far from fully fleshed out.

It may feel implausible at times, but the pleasant details of the setting and presentation of the turmoil makes No Escape into a delightful action survival.