Red Eye (2005)
I liked "Red Eye." It reminded me
a bit of "Phone Booth" in that it was short, compact
and didn't waste a whole lot of time with set-up.
But since the film is basically "a story," with a
dash of suspense thrown in, much in the way that "The
Skeleton Key" is, it's easy to see why the marketing
department had such a difficult time trying to decide
how to sell it. It's directed by Wes Craven, after
all, so there's an expectation that the film will
have horror elements. It does not. Craven is an odd
choice for director here but he brings the film around
easily and makes it work well.
The film might be called a "Thriller"
since there is some suspense and a bit of action.
I found myself on the edge of my seat during the last
ten minutes of the film. Craven is quite good at eeking
all the tension out of the story that he can and it
makes for quite good viewing.
To be sure, putting Cillian Murphy
(it's pronounced Kill-I- An, by the way) and Rachel
McAdams in the leads is a damn good idea. We have
to look at these two for nearly 90 minutes, so it
is nice that they are hot, attractive, young people.
You could put Murphy on the screen eating dinner for
ninety minutes and still sell a lot of tickets. It's
going to be huge when he stars in his first romantic
film. I mean, Ryan Gosling is hot but put Murphy in
a romantic drama with McAdams (or any of the two dozen
other interchangeable young romantic leading ladies
around these days) and you've got a 100 million dollar
winner on your hands.
"Red Eye" isn't the best movie ever
made or anything; it's just good solid entertainment
that goes down as easy as strawberry ice cream on
a summer's day. Even if you get a little ice cream
headache, there's still not much to complain about.
Notes:
Also with Brian Cox, Max Kasch,
Jack Scalia, and Robert Pine. Craven and scripter
Carl Ellsworth have cameos as passengers.
Viewed in Austin in August of 2005.
