Phillip Noyce“The Desperate Hour” begins with Naomi Watts’ Amy going for a morning jog after prompting her teenage son to wake up for school.
While Amy was running through a long trail, deep into the woods, she heard a police car pass by. Her phone then informs her that the high school her son attends is on lockdown, due to a hostage situation. As Amy glided through the trees and frantically called whoever would answer their phone, she pondered whether the shooter was her son.
This is the tasteless, albeit high-pitched, conceptual premise that this movie runs on quite literally.
I enjoy many of Noyce’s films and got into this one from the start, as the beautiful cinematography and the rich, overlapping visuals conveyed Amy’s happy escapades while walking. Once the frantic calls came in and the movie tried to combine a boilerplate with themes about school shootings and the parents of murderers, I wanted to throw my shoe at the screen (I don’t want to). do, because I watched this at home).
“Mass” (2021) recently delved into this material with directness but sensitivity and intelligence, while this reminded me of Uma Thurman’s misguided car, “The Life Before His Eyes” (2007), another deaf person took on the subject with a movie star in the lead role.
I assume Noyce also watched “Locke” (2013) and “Phone Booth” (2003), which are also movies by a single performer on the phone for most of the time. Some of “The Desperate Hour” even remind me of that scene in “Speed” (1994), where Keanu Reeves is on the pay phone with Dennis Hopper.
“The Desperate Hour” is largely akin to “Cellular” (2004), an effective but lousy B-movie in which pre-MCU Chris Evans runs around like a madman while kidnapped Kim Basinger tries to keep he stayed before his phone died. That movie is petty, but it knows it’s in constant motion and certainly doesn’t attempt to address the agonizing horror of school shootings.
Noyce creates anxiety but the whole thing feels like a connection. I never let go of how bad the movie tasted. If Noyce and Watts have admirable intentions that’s fine, but this still feels like a miscalculated stunt and not that the worst movies are always the ones made with purpose. good (see the miserable 2011 Tom Hanks/Sandra Bullock 11/9 family film, “Extremely Big and Extremely Close”)?
Watts’ run was supposed to be five miles long but turned out to be an adventure, completely involving Blair Witch. The way the screenwriter kept her in the woods for so long was like manipulation. All of the foreshadowing is obvious, as this is an easy movie to go with.
Maybe this could work as a short film and find better, smarter ways to blend real-life horror with the popcorn premise. “Searching” (2018) led by John Cho succeeds at this.
Movie Tonight: “The Desperate Hour” Starring Naomi Watts on @The current #TheDesperateHour #Watching ⏱ pic.twitter.com/Bh2oAt6Oal
– Kris (@ Krissykins1) February 25, 2022
The film’s creator is Chris Sparling, who wrote “Down a Dark Hall” (2018) and the films “Buried” (2010) and “ATM” (2012) have similar themes, showy, cunning but higher level. This is one of those scripts that should have been in the drawer.
What we end up getting is a well-choreographed bad movie. I’m willing to let a movie be just a movie and not pre-judge it based on how it does or doesn’t reflect real life. If “The Desperate Hour” was a great movie, I wouldn’t mind how it handles the difficult subject matter it portrays (the same way I really like Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center” and how it approached 9/11). Noyce’s movies are not only sloppy, they’re also annoying.
What is the purpose of all of this? Turn off your damn phone while you jog!
I despise this movie.
A star
