J.J.
Abrams’ production company Bad Robot, which produced 2009’s “Cloverfield,” and
“Super 8,” has made Abrams’ concept of the ‘mystery box’ a big part of the way
it they tell their stories and an even bigger part of the way market their
projects. “10 Cloverfield Lane” is a conceptual successor to the 2009
found-footage, monster-movie but it’s not necessarily a sequel. Of course Bad
Robot sold the, as with many of its others, with a shroud of mystery, releasing
a vague but enticing trailer. Luckily the film itself lives up to most of the
intrigue of the trailer and though it only takes about 30 minutes before you
realize this has nothing to do with the original “Cloverfield,” it settles in
successfully as a contained thriller on its own... that is until it loses its
nerve in a jarring and disjointed final sequence.
In keeping
with the ‘mystery box’ narrative style we are introduced to our movie’s lead
Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) as she is racing down the highways of rural America
after initiating a bad breakup. On her way, she collides with a truck and is left
for dead on the side of the road, where she is eventually rescued by an intense
survivalist/conspiracy theorist named Howard (John Goodman). Michelle wakes up
to finds herself in a hand-built bomb shelter where her captor/savior Howard
insists that Armageddon has begun outside of the walls of their sanctuary and
that she must live with him and his younger apprentice Emmet (John Gallagher
Jr) until the air outside has become clear of nuclear fallout.
This would
be a great premise for a bottle episode of anthology television shows like “The
Twilight Zone,” “The Outer Limits” or even “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” The
contained locations and the intimate cast focus the energy of the film on
steady, deliberate scene direction and performances. All three of the leads are
convincing in their parts – Winstead proves again that she can hold the camera’s
attention and can bring both emotional heft and levity when it’s needed.
Gallagher Jr works as a great foil that helps to settle the story’s tension
with a general sense of everyman relatability. Goodman is given the license to
ham it up and he chooses to use it, integrating many acting ticks into his
creepy portrayal of a deeply paranoid and lonely control freak. Much of this is
presented like a perversion of the American family archetype and in the
background there’s only a hint of something more dangerous and otherworldly at
stake. Unfortunately, the movie’s awkward landing doesn’t maintain the same
kind of subtly and suggestion.
First time director Dan Trachtenberg is able
to keep the pot simmering for the most part but reported on-set rewrites lead
to the movie’s downfall in a tonally jarring conclusion. I can’t give away what
happens, but let’s just say that the human interactions happening inside of the
seller is a hell of a lot more interesting than what’s apparently happening
outside of it. Because the “Cloverfield” brand was slapped on this otherwise good
thriller, Abrams’ made more effort to connect the two movies in ways that
undercut this film’s deeper themes of fanaticism and the results of dangerously
regressive gender dynamics. Like a pulpy cousin to last year’s Oscar-nominated “Room,”
“10 Cloverfield Lane” wants to explore bigger ideas outside of the confines of
its genre, but those ideas are ultimately trapped within a problematic rewrite.
Even
though the movie is hobbled by its misjudged ending, the merits of everything
leading up to it can’t be ignored. As such, the film will sit alongside Steven Spielberg’s
“A.I” and Danny Boyles “Sunshine” in the pantheon of sci-fi near-masterpieces
that are marred by their last half hour.
Grade: B -
Grade: B -
Originally published in the Idaho State Journal/March-2016
Listen to more discussion about "10 Cloverfield Lane" on this week's Jabber and the Drone Podcast.
