Encontro Selvagem

Workmates Les Moore (Matthew Broderick) and Natalie Hamilton (Alice Eve) are flying from L.A. to Dallas when they are forced to land in Albuquerque. He's grumpy and heads into town. She reluctantly joins him.

This is a small indie. The two actors don't have much to play with. They're not even a couple and they don't know much about each other. They are essentially both playing the deadpan straight man. There is nothing truly holding them together. It needs to be much more a quirky adventure. It's as interesting as watching me walk around downtown and I'm not that interesting. The first act is flatly dull with low level quirky turns that go nowhere. She reveals something about her lesbian relationship and he can't let go.of a past sexual experience. Their secrets aren't as interesting as hoped for. It might be groundbreaking twenty years ago. Writer/director Neil LaBute's best work may be that long ago. It's a lot of talk with scarce humor. This is a layover hoping for a destination.

I kept waiting for this movie to come together and make any kind of point, but sadly it never did. On top of which, Matthew Broderick is just plain awful and torture to watch.

Ahhh, Matthew, you've gone from WarGames, Ferris, Biloxi, and even Election, to this? You used to be cool denim and now your dusty polyester. Time to hang it up dude. Your incessant whining made me nauseous and just killed the credibility of the film. In real life nobody would last two seconds listening to you.

Other than being sickened by Broderick, the movie was pointless and I think they were trying to be cool in a Breaking Bad sort of way shooting in Albuquerque but it never really came off that way.

One bright spot was Alice Eve. I can watch her all day. She's an absolutely captivating actress and should be getting closer to a breakout film than a resume buster like this one.

In the end, watching this movie was a dreadful waste of time.

This is your typical sort of indie film.

Not funny enough to be a comedy, not dramatic enough to be a drama.

It takes two actors 'trying to do something different' and is one of those talky affairs that are always hit and miss.

The premise is limited and unfortunately doesn't go anywhere. There's some nice moments and interactions, but it funs out of steam somewhere around the mid-point.

Both the main actors (Matthew Broderick and Alice Eve) are good in what they are given to do, but this never becomes anything more than a pleasant exercise for both.

Alice Eve has done a far better version of this in 'Before We Go', a film I recommend much more highly.

This is not a great movie, so if you are looking for one, skip it. That being said, it is certainly not a bad film. The acting is good, the subject is interesting and the overall mood is that of a road movie.

You have these two coworkers in some company that is not revealed, as it means nothing to the story, stuck in "Albu-Quirky" until weather gets better in Dallas. One of them is Matthew Broderick, a middle aged man that seems to want to go to the town center for some reason, and the other is Alice Eve, his efficient and professional female counterpart who won't leave him alone. By the time the movie ends, we know more about the two characters and what their inner struggles are and they have bonded as good friends - and not romantically.

Now, the pace is slow, the humor is mostly character based, manifesting as various quirks of the people in the film, the moral is that what happens in Albuquerque stays in Albuquerque and the meat of the film is talking and again talking. I actually went to IMDb to check if it was a Woody Allen movie in which he chose not to star for a change. It is not. It is another Neil LaBute story that he both writes and directs.

While I won't recommend this film, I can't say that you should stay away from it, either. It is an unspectacular road movie, where you get to understand more of human nature.

It seemed like an attempt at Ferris taking Albuquerque, but without the solid humor. Too bad, but at least his co-star will attract some audience. Broderick seemed like he wasn't happy about the script and even tried to play it too straight. Or maybe he wasn't happy the layover was in Albuquerque.

I haven't seen much of Eve, but she should have at least let her hair down earlier during the layover , that would have been a bit more realistic. I've never been to the town , but they did a great job of making it seem like a very small town without many people. Not sure if that was intentional but seemed odd nonetheless.