Scan and Pan
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Vacancy
David (Luke Wilson) and Amy (Kate Beckinsale) are a married couple on the verge of divorce. Driving home late at night from a party, David decides it'll be quicker to take a back road home. After the car breaks down, they find an isolated motel run by the eccentric Mason (Frank Whaley) and decide to spend the night there. They discover a stack of videotapes in their room that at first appear to be low-budget slasher films, but instead turn out to be snuff films shot in the same room they're staying in.
Director Nimród Antal (Kontroll) effectively builds suspense while echoing the classic Psycho by using an isolated location to conjure up all the fears about what could happen in such places. It's enough to sustain the film through two acts, but in the third act Mark L. Smith's screenplay runs out of ideas and falls back on cliches. The ending is entirely predictable and artificial. It doesn't help that the limited number of characters aren't always well-realized, particularly Amy. Coming just after the release of Grindhouse, whose female protagonists stand out as strong individuals, the female protagonist here comes across as a tired genre cliche.
Cinematographer Andrzej Sekula (Pulp Fiction, American Psycho) and production designer Jon Gary Steele (American History X, Cruel Intentions) create an atmosphere of isolation and fear with shadowy lighting and a rundown motel set that looks like so many places you see from the safety of the highway and wisely avoid.
Wilson and Beckinsale are believable as a couple with a strained marriage. Wilson comes off better because his character is better realized by the script, while Beckinsale's character spends much of the film whining, hysterical, or cringing. Whaley is good at first when he has to play eccentric, but loses any sense of menace when the script requires him to go over the top. Truly menacing villains are best underplayed rather than overplayed. Ethan Embry and David Doty round out the cast as a mechanic and a state patrolman respectively.
It's a shame that a film that starts with some promise ends in such a disappointing fashion.
[2.5 out of 5 stars]
This thriller starts out promisingly enough but falls apart at the end.
David (Luke Wilson) and Amy (Kate Beckinsale) are a married couple on the verge of divorce. Driving home late at night from a party, David decides it'll be quicker to take a back road home. After the car breaks down, they find an isolated motel run by the eccentric Mason (Frank Whaley) and decide to spend the night there. They discover a stack of videotapes in their room that at first appear to be low-budget slasher films, but instead turn out to be snuff films shot in the same room they're staying in.
Director Nimród Antal (Kontroll) effectively builds suspense while echoing the classic Psycho by using an isolated location to conjure up all the fears about what could happen in such places. It's enough to sustain the film through two acts, but in the third act Mark L. Smith's screenplay runs out of ideas and falls back on cliches. The ending is entirely predictable and artificial. It doesn't help that the limited number of characters aren't always well-realized, particularly Amy. Coming just after the release of Grindhouse, whose female protagonists stand out as strong individuals, the female protagonist here comes across as a tired genre cliche.
Cinematographer Andrzej Sekula (Pulp Fiction, American Psycho) and production designer Jon Gary Steele (American History X, Cruel Intentions) create an atmosphere of isolation and fear with shadowy lighting and a rundown motel set that looks like so many places you see from the safety of the highway and wisely avoid.
Wilson and Beckinsale are believable as a couple with a strained marriage. Wilson comes off better because his character is better realized by the script, while Beckinsale's character spends much of the film whining, hysterical, or cringing. Whaley is good at first when he has to play eccentric, but loses any sense of menace when the script requires him to go over the top. Truly menacing villains are best underplayed rather than overplayed. Ethan Embry and David Doty round out the cast as a mechanic and a state patrolman respectively.
It's a shame that a film that starts with some promise ends in such a disappointing fashion.
[2.5 out of 5 stars]
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