Review of Red Eye (2005) by Mario E — 11 Oct 2009

A review by Alberto Ehrler.

Wes Craven is the master of contemporary horror, a title he has rightfully earned with films such as "Nightmare on Elm Street", "The Hills Have Eyes" and "The Last House on the Left", but over the years he has begun to loose his power and his recent films leave much, much room for improvement. His 2005 suspense thriller "Red Eye" has all the elements of a really good thriller, but it fails to carry through the emotion and it lacks the necessary element of psychological horror his previous films excelled at.

This particular film tells the story of Lisa Reisart (Rachel McAdams), who's the manager of a well-known hotel in Miami. Lisa is currently away on a trip to Seattle, attending the funeral of her grandmother. Even in her leave of absence she can't escape the frequent calls from the hotel receptionist (Jayma Mays), who seems to be your typical brainless blonde, but who turns out to be a gutsy and dedicated employee. Anyway, Lisa is scheduled to take the red eye from Seattle to Miami, where she's in charge of supervising the "perfect stay" at the hotel for a controversial political figure, Charles Keefe, and she really needs to get there fast.

At the beginning, there is a perfect character development for this Lisa character. She's quick-witted, bears an unfogged mind and has all the bearings of a completely professional and experienced hotel manager. She dresses soberly but elegantly, and we notice she seems to be reserved and a total workaholic. She frequently gets calls from her father (Brian Cox), who has too much spare time now Lisa has moved away from home, and who is constantly inquiring how she is and if she needs anything. We are intrigued by Lisa, immediate questions rise in our minds as to how she developed this caring but emotionally distant personality, and the film at first seems to have all the markings of excellent character development.

In the airport, Lisa meets Jackson Ripner (Cillian Murphy), a suave, charming and handsome young man who seems to be the perfect match for Lisa. During the first twenty minutes, we see Lisa and Jackson interact and get to know each other, as well as short interludes they have with other passengers from their same flight. We see Lisa's emotional barrier begin to fade, and we're happy to see that, whatever experience she might have had in her past, she's beginning to open up to this really charming man.

Once inside the plane, it turns out that Lisa and Jackson are seated together, and all of a sudden Jackson reveals his true monstrous self: he's a conspirator in a plan to assassinate Charles Keefe, the important political figure who's to stay at Lisa's hotel, and he threatens to kill Lisa's father if she doesn't facilitate a few things for him.

Up till now, the story and the dialogue are engrossing and bear all the markings of an exemplary suspense thriller, reminiscent of an Alfred Hitchcock film. But then the movie changes from being emotionally profound to being your typical Hollywood thriller with little or no depth at all, concerned with only keeping audiences entertained. The rest of the film features a harrowed Lisa, virtually alone with this Jackson fellow in a plane, as she tries to foil his plans and as she tries to save her father's life. Oh, don't get me wrong, the movie is interesting and overall a good watch, but it will disappoint cinema lovers worldwide, no doubt.

The character development and depth stops there, and is replaced with suspenseful action throughout. The different passengers we were introduced to at first turn out to be virtually useless to the plot, and the dialogue becomes superficial and clichéd, with nothing to make us actually care about what's going on on the screen. The cinematography is unimpressive but somewhat effective, and the score is fairly forgettable (which surprises me, since composer Marco Beltrami's work is usually good).

After the first half of the film, the certainty that the potential masterpiece this could have been has been lost and that your expectation won't be fulfilled. You have nothing else to do but sit back and enjoy a film that will certainly entertain you and keep you on the edge of your seat but which will be forgotten as soon as it's over and you change the channel. Let's just say that I'll keep wishing for Wes Craven's ingenious directorial power to resurface sometime soon.

Rating: 2 stars and a half out of 4.