Fuga Desesperada

Canada grows some excellent wine. We discovered insulin and invented the rotary snowblower. But we're not very good at making movies. This is yet another mediocrity. And yet another Canadian picture shot in British Columbia but set in Washington state. Well, maybe it's better that way because most people won't even be aware of that --- who bothers to read the credits anyhow? --- and the fewer people who realize how bad Canadian movies are the better our reputation. It's hard to say what's worse: the pedestrian camera work that makes even glorious BC look bland; the utterly predictable script that made it so obvious from the start who the bad guy is; the acting skills of the no-name "stars" who are roughly on a par with an amateur theatre group. Not awful. But pretty close!

I watched the premiere of Desperate Escape last night on Lifetime Movie Network (Feb. 7th) and thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Although, the actual plot isn't anything the average Thriller/Mystery Fan hasn't seen before and the film doesn't really re-invent the wheel here, it still held my attention til the very end despite the end reveal being fairly obvious by the last half hour. Still, it was well acted and the suspense factor kept the film moving and entertaining.

The movie begins with Brooke (Elisabeth Rohm) waking up from a 2 day coma after being attacked on the docks with retrograde amnesia. She can't recall much about her life or who she knows or what she does for a living - only her name and relies on Michael (Michael Shanks), her supposed fiancé who was by her side when she awoke, to fill in the pieces. The Doctor found bruises on her body that occurred prior to the accident but Michael explained that Brooke is active and likes to hike and play tennis. Meanwhile, once released Brooke is afraid to be alone and is easily overwhelmed with flashes of her memories coming back in ways that she can not understand. She also feels like she's being chased or followed by someone watching. Michael takes care of her and is understanding and patient filling in the pieces of her life that she can't seem to remember including a broken relationship with her sister who lives out of state and a best friend, Melissa (Serinda Swan) who also wants to help Brooke out. She also sees a psychiatrist, Dr. Reynolds (Michael Jonsson), who Michael told her that they had seen before and who he thinks will help her work through the memory flashes.

However, all is not what it seems. Can Brooke really trust her fiancé, Michael? Is what he tells her really the truth about their life before the accident? Were they really even engaged? People that knew her and him didn't remember an engagement. Is Melissa really her best friend? Is her relationship with her sister really estranged? What do the memories mean? Why was she attacked? Who attacked her? The viewer puts together the pieces of the truth as Brooke puts the pieces together and by the end, you have a pretty average Thriller script but due to good acting (Elisabeth Rohm was great here I thought), good directing and an overall good pace, I'd rated it a 7/10. I'd definitely recommend catching this movie when it's inevitable repeated over and over again on Lifetime Movie Network.

I found this movie lacked details of realism. It was obvious they left out details to create suspense, you find yourself asking questions that should have been answered sooner. The what would you do test fails miserably. How anyone could believe that people would behave like the characters in this film is beyond me. The acting and direction was excellent, it's too bad the writers are not of the same calibre. The screen play sucks. I could go on with boring details of the movie but I think I summed it up quite well the problem is, this website wants me to write ten lines of tripe to express how I felt about the movie I guess I would say that there wasn't enough sex, passion, realism, blah blah blah... I guess if there is nothing else to watch you might watch this movie. The lady lives in a secluded area but the neighbour hears a gun shot. I think they ran out of money because the ending was abrupt. The writers again couldn't figure out how to get out of mystery mode as the tables get turned and the prey becomes the predator. Even when there's a gun shot we are taken into the woods away from what happened. Earlier the police are seen questioning a the villain on the street after a traffic stop some thing that would have been done in an interrogation room. Yadda Yadda Yadda do I have ten lines yet?

Brooke Harris (Elisabeth Röhm) wakes up from a coma with amnesia. She had a boating accident and bruises from before the incident. A man claiming to be her boyfriend (Michael Shanks) takes her home. They encounter Melissa (Serinda Swan) who claims to be her best friend. Police detectives Wagner and Hanson is investigating. Brooke has flashes of violent memories.

Peolpe please! Lay off poor Brooke. She may be naive and probably forgotten all the other Lifetime movies. But she has brain damage. The other characters don't have that excuse. The cops are unbelievably dumb in their investigation. I don't think a real doctor would let anybody claiming to be a boyfriend to take her patient. A lot of this could be solved by making him her real husband. The legal restrictions would excuse the doctor and the cops. In the end, he's not related to her and yet they tip toe around her abused state. Other things also annoyed me. The cops are both wearing trenchcoats like it's some kind of cheesy uniform. The "twist" is coming from a mile away which eliminates any suspense from the movie. This is a bad version of countless other Lifetime movies.

This is less a suspense (minute the opening) than an exploration of a woman who struggles to find the truth about what happened to her. It works better as a mystery, however, though, unfortunately, the director doesn't pump up that element enough. Character Development: Michael,the fiance, is pretty blah. For a suspect, he doesn't exhibit any signs or show any changes. Elisabeth Röhm (Brooke) plays an unsure and almost too agreeable woman as she struggles with uncovering the truth of who was responsible for sending her into an amnesiac state. She does manage to break free of this weaker state and find a way to take action, which is commendable. Pacing/Writing Quality: Good, for the most part. I did wonder how Brooke could accept Michael's proposal when she hasn't even regained her memory of him; that seemed like weak writing. Also, at one point, Brooke asks Michael if he ever loved her and this line repeats to someone else; this question took away from the story as it truly wasn't important here because that aspect of the relationship was not explored or a concern in the context of what had happened to her. Content (sex, language & violence): No sex, no language. The violence is minimal and occurs in the opening hook and then a bit at the end. Scare factor: Not much scare, really. The story instead focuses on Brooke's psychology as she struggles to remember her fiance, who has brought her home from the hospital. The scares that take place occur in the opening scene when Brooke is slapped 3 or 4 times, then cast into the ocean. Throughout, as she remembers bits and pieces of that moment, the scene is rehashed.