Red Eye is a completely preposterous film, but at least it doesn't let on. Wes Craven, the man who pounded the last nail into the coffin of the slasher genre with his self-referential, sarcastic Scream movies, has returned cheerfully to the arena of the straight thriller, and demonstrates that, even in this era of winking knowingness, it's possible to unspool a hopelessly implausible, silly yarn in an honest way, to put across a load of hooey without feeling the need to let the audience in on the "joke". Red Eye is another variation on that tried-and-true movie formula of the imperiled woman discovering her survivalist onions. Cute, plucky Rachel McAdams plays Lisa, a hotel concierge, who's on her way home to Miami after attending her grandmother's funeral in Texas. While waiting for her delayed flight to finally take off, Lisa meets the vaguely creepy Rippner (Cillian Murphy), who buys her a drink at a Tex-Mex place at the airport and talks her up a bit, never letting on that he's actually an international assassin hired to kill a controversial U.S. Senator, and that his convoluted plan requires Lisa to pull strings at her hotel and get the Senator put in a different room. This all comes to light later on when the two are seated together on the plane; Rippner lets Lisa know that her father will have something nasty done to him should she fail to co-operate with the evil plan, and that he wouldn't appreciate any attempt on her part to weasel out of the affair. This is an ungainly set-up to be sure, but Craven has developed considerable chops since his days as a rank exploitation man, and handles it all pretty smoothly. Craven understands that the essence of suspense is character; the more we identify with the lead, the more we'll be drawn into the story, and the more effective the suspense routines will be. He's lucky, then, to be blessed with Rachel McAdams, who is instantaneously engaging, and gives off no movie-star vibes or anything else that might get in the way of our rooting for her. What makes Lisa so likable is her proficiency; we know right off the bat that this is no one to be trifled with, that even a heartless manipulator like Rippner is going to have his hands full. Some may take issue with the idea that a simple hotel concierge could engage in a successful battle of wits with a guy who makes a living carrying out highly sophisticated assassination plots and other nefarious deeds, but I say why not? Lisa is clearly used to thinking on her feet, handling complicated logistics, and dealing with people who may or may not be psychotic (she works at a swanky hotel after all). The movie works because it doesn't expect you to take all this very seriously; it's not a hard-sell movie, all jacked up on stylistic steroids, but a goofy thrill-ride where half the fun is in recognizing how improbable the whole thing is. A lot of today's young, hot-shot directors could take a lesson in how to lighten up and enjoy oneself from Craven, who not only knows every trick in the book, but knows how to whip them out without stumbling all over himself.
Review of Red Eye
