hlahorner

Watched this one on a whim after learning it was Spielberg's first movie. It is really good, and I dare say better than many of current movies of the same genre. Dennis Weaver does an excellent job as the main character, David Mann. Other than short interactions with various people along the road, who don't comprehend the peril, it's all on him to convey the rising panic of an ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances. It would have been easy to overact but he is very believable. The truck is extremely menacing. You never see the drivers face, so it takes on a life of its own and feels like a living predator; determined, unrelenting, deadly. I'm glad I discovered this excellent psychological thriller.

The reason this movie got the greenlight is because writer/director Zoë Kraviz is who she is, otherwise a screenplay with this played out "men are bad" storyline, stilted dialogue, and ridiculous girl boss twist ending wouldn't have been given a second look. As other reviewers have mentioned, the first two thirds of the movie is repetitive to the point of being boring. There isn't a build up of tension, (perhaps because the trigger warning at the start removes the suspense) or believable character development, and could have been cut down substantially. The movie is long and you felt every minute. By the time all hell breaks loose you're glad the story is moving forward, but it's not satisfying. What the movie does have is a lot of well known actors, beautiful scenery and cinematography, which is why I gave it a 5 instead of a 1.

Between the painfully slow pacing, grating musical score, and Kristen Stewart whispering to the ghost of Anne Boleyn, this movie is hard to get through. I heard the buzz about Stewart's portrayal, and it is all her, with minimal interaction with the other characters, but it felt overwrought. The whole movie was "hey, look at how the Royal family is driving Diana crazy! She's about to go over the edge!" By driving the point so hard I felt it took on a melodramatic tone, rather than a sympathetic one. Save yourself the two hours and skip it.