Wrecked opens with all the promise of being a taunt and tense thriller, designed to keep its audience gripped whilst solving the puzzle at the same pace as its characters. Sadly, this only lasts for the first act, and then the film dissolves into something else entirely.
The story is simple: a car has driven off the road and crashed into the woods below. One unnamed man (Adrien Brody) has survived but is badly injured with a broken leg and a bruised and bloodied body. A dead man is in the back seat, another has been thrown through the windshield into the woods. However, Brodys character has no recollection of how he got here, why he was in the car, or who the other two men are. He is stranded, injured, without food or water, and must try to get out of the situation he now finds himself in.
The opening 30 minutes in captivating cinema. Obviously made on a low budget, director Michael Greenspan allows time for very little to happen other than have us watch this near-helpless man wake up in a nightmare scenario. Several days pass and we see the animals come out at night and prey on the two dead bodies, whilst Brody does the best he can to fend them off. His days are made up of hallucinating and trying the make a splint for his broken leg. There is very little dialogue, so Brodys performance must be strong enough to hold our attention and it is.
So far, this review has been very positive, so where does the problem lie? The trouble comes in the second and third acts and cements the fact that Wrecked is an idea for a film dragged out over twice its feasible running time. The movie sets up all the hallmarks of a thriller there are dead bodies, lost memories, a loaded gun, a bag full of money, and reports on the car radio of a bank robbery, with Brody not knowing if he was involed. I was all prepared to see the either the owner of the money hunt Brody down, or see how an innocent Brody got caught in a life-or-death battle against the bank robbers who track him down. I got neither.
This isnt to say the film should have turned out as I wanted it, but when the film sets itself up to be one thing, and draws the viewer in so effortlessly as Wrecked does, I believe there should be a pay off. Instead what we end up with is a character who has no arc or development, and the film goes on far too long without anything happening to support the initial set up. Brody befriends a stray dog, gets washed away in a river, and does precious little else until the script decides to call it a day and conveniently wrap things up.
Watching Wrecked only served to remind me of how good a single location premise can be when done well. Compare this to Burie,d where the character played by Ryan Reynolds finds himself in a similar predicament, and the contrast in the two films is significant. Buried worked because we learn about Reynolds character as the film played out, and the stakes were high when the finale approached. In Wrecked, Brodys character is never explained other than in a few flashbacks that are completely out of sync with the films tone. The script has run out of all creativity by this point, and the gets shown up for not knowing where it is going.
Overall Verdict: A 40 minute story dragged over 87 minutes. This film has so much promise at the start but suffers from a lack of ideas and a lead character you just cant care about.
Special Features:
Trailer
Making of
Reviewer: Rohan Morbey