Movie Review

Red Eye

The premise of the movie is simple enough. And so is the execution (ha ha). This dichotomy lies at the heart of Red Eye, a conventional thriller with several good elements that are ultimately outweighed by the roteness of the plot. It?s a Wes Craven thriller, so it has a large degree of predictability. While the Scream series is famous for being self-referential and parodying, it also has a very straightforward trajectory that doesn?t challenge most viewers. Scream is also more of a mystery; Red Eye lays most of its plot bare pretty early on (and in the trailers as well).

Lisa (Rachel McAdams) is a manager at a posh Miami hotel. At the beginning, she is heading towards the airport to catch a flight home, returning from a trip of which I can?t recall the details. She seems to be on the phone constantly (she?s one of those movie-people who is so busy that you just know they?re gonna crack up soon enough). She gets to the airport and faces the usual travel grind (now heightened after 9/11). A young man named Jack (Cillian Murphy) slyly introduces himself while waiting in line. Their mutual flight is delayed, so Lisa decides it might be a decent time killer to chat with Jack over a drink at the airport Tex-Mex house.

They exchange slightly meaningful conversation and then board the plane only to find out that their seats are right next to each other. Soon enough ?wouldn?t you know ? Jack reveals that he?s a terrorist, and his cohort is holding Lisa?s father hostage at the family home. Jack?s mission: kindly persuade Lisa to change a room booking for the just-arriving Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. There are assassins (with unknown motives) who want to get a good look at the powerful man?a look that can only be achieved on a certain side of the hotel. Lisa, obviously broken up after hearing all this, takes the information and processes it. What she does with it comprises the rest of the film.

Even though this movie has an intriguing setup, it ends up not doing much with it. The second half is filled with chases and suspense moments, and they all seem like weak copouts. A true sense of tension is lost as it appears, right around the time Jack starts making his revelations. The back-and-forth between McAdams and Murphy on the plane engaged me, but once they got off, the movie grounded itself as well. The climax and resolution are so pedestrian that they erase any redeeming elements that came before them. Most of the good comes from the acting on the part of the two leads. McAdams brings empathy and authenticity to her role, plowing through girl-in-distress clich?s and still coming out on the other side respectably. She has real talent, getting the audience involved in her character. She is deserving of her newfound exposure, including her breakout role in Wedding Crashers (C+).

Cillian Murphy provides a good turn as stalker-boy Jack, letting his natural pretty-boy creepiness wash over the character. Even though we know that he will turn evil beforehand, it is still fun watching him gradually introduce his savageness to the poor girl. He makes us believe that he is a deeply twisted person who will take drastic measure to get what he wants. For him, this whole game is just a business opportunity?but it becomes personal when the unexpected occurs.

I suppose that a huge part of this movie?s ?horror? quotient comes from its starting-point concepts. Everyone is openly scared of airline travel nowadays; hijacking phobia is definitely at an all-time high. While the events in this story don?t affect everyone on board, it?s the closeness to possible disaster that may shake up some moviegoers. The disturbing twist that accompanies this setup is the fact that our terrorist is white and unassuming. It is too much for us to think that those who want to kill us may not always be swarthy Middle Easterners; psychos come in every color of the rainbow.

I was reminded of the new crop of Chechen rebels, currently warring with Russia. They are the ones who stormed a Moscow opera house a few years back and took hundreds of people hostage. What is most disquieting about them is that they are both Caucasian and Muslim, a combo that would probably scramble the brain of most Americans. Cillian Murphy?s character could be one of these real-life killers, looking unthreatening to most eyes while hiding something terrible beneath the surface. This could relate to the movie?s title, which I think is pretty cool. Red Eye refers to a late-night flight, but what is a better image of pure evil? Could it even relate to the notorious Illuminati, whose symbol is the All-Seeing Eye? This kind of beneath-the-surface material propels the movie forward in a breezily linear kind of way. But the later passages are too much filler to be truly arresting ? wait for cable, people.

Scott's Grade: C+

A	15.1%
B	59.2%
C	24.5%
D	1.2%
F	0.0%