Don’t Move
Cast: Kelsey Asbille, Finn Wittrock
Director: Adam Schindler, Brian Netto
Rating: 3/5
For psychological thrillers, it’s a given that we live in a broken world, a place with predators lurking around. Usually isolated from civilisation, literally and metaphorically, such a space evokes fear, horror and then survivalist tendencies. A new Netflix film Don’t Move portrays a similar canvas where a 30-something Iris (Kelsey), grieving the accidental death of her child, has lost the will to live, but she surprises herself with the fightback she still has in her when a family man-cum-ruthless kidnapper Richard (Finn) enters the scene.
Let’s talk about the good things first—Don’t Move is engaging. Despite only two talking heads for most of the runtime of 92-minutes, it manages as many twists and turns as you wanted for a Friday night leisure watch. The lush green thick fields and carefully recced locations around waterbodies add to the terrifying possibilities where you don’t want two people to come very close. You get afraid of the fate of the elderly and physically weaker of them.
It's a sharp screenplay with clear understanding of where it wants to lead the audience. There’s no pretention of being preachy or conscientious, except for a scene where we know that the abductor has a family he loves. It’s just another day in the life of a helpless yet gritty American rural woman. Life may throw her curveballs, but she has can hit back with a flail.
The lead actors are in the required zone, but getting deeper into the psyches of the victim and perpetrator would have added dimensions. It’s precise filmmaking, but good psychological thrillers can be more than just cautionary tales.
No heartfelt complaints though as Don’t Move is entertaining in totality with basic understanding of milieu clearly stated for one and all.
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