Every now and then you stumble upon a movie that you've never heard of, but that manages to catch your attention with a plot that's intriguing. In this case, it's about a woman on a late night flight who gets caught up somehow in a plot to assassinate the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security.
The woman is Lisa (played by Rachel McAdams.) Lisa is the manager of a fancy hotel in Miami where the Deputy Secretary stays when in the city. In the airport, waiting for her flight, Lisa is befriended by Jack (Cillian Murphy.) Jack is a friendly guy, basically seeming to be interested in hitting it off with a pretty woman like Lisa. And yet, it's clear from the start that there's something not quite right with the character; something creepy - even sinister. Murphy did a great job with this character. He, of course, is involved with the plot. His job is to coerce Lisa into using her clout as manager to change the Deputy Secretary's room to on where he'll be more vulnerable.
The whole thing leads up to a pretty exciting last 20-30 minutes, from the point at which Lisa manages to escape from Jack, and it turns into a pretty typical pursuit sort of movie as Jack chases Lisa (and sometimes Lisa chases Jack.) That's standard in a lot of ways, but still pretty well down, and it has you on the edge of your seat from time to time, waiting to see how it will turn out.
Director Wes Craven did a decent job of building the suspense in this. It starts out a bit slowly, but builds magnificently to that very exciting end, and in a lot of ways this has an underlying and very appropriate tongue in cheek feel to it, and it ends on a humorous note, going back to an obnoxious couple staying at the hotel, who are none too pleased that they've been inconvenienced by the assassination attempt. Overall, this is very well done. (7/10)
The woman is Lisa (played by Rachel McAdams.) Lisa is the manager of a fancy hotel in Miami where the Deputy Secretary stays when in the city. In the airport, waiting for her flight, Lisa is befriended by Jack (Cillian Murphy.) Jack is a friendly guy, basically seeming to be interested in hitting it off with a pretty woman like Lisa. And yet, it's clear from the start that there's something not quite right with the character; something creepy - even sinister. Murphy did a great job with this character. He, of course, is involved with the plot. His job is to coerce Lisa into using her clout as manager to change the Deputy Secretary's room to on where he'll be more vulnerable.
The whole thing leads up to a pretty exciting last 20-30 minutes, from the point at which Lisa manages to escape from Jack, and it turns into a pretty typical pursuit sort of movie as Jack chases Lisa (and sometimes Lisa chases Jack.) That's standard in a lot of ways, but still pretty well down, and it has you on the edge of your seat from time to time, waiting to see how it will turn out.
Director Wes Craven did a decent job of building the suspense in this. It starts out a bit slowly, but builds magnificently to that very exciting end, and in a lot of ways this has an underlying and very appropriate tongue in cheek feel to it, and it ends on a humorous note, going back to an obnoxious couple staying at the hotel, who are none too pleased that they've been inconvenienced by the assassination attempt. Overall, this is very well done. (7/10)