It's billed as a "thriller" and I think I'd take issue with that. It's more of a suspense type movie - not many thrills to find - but, while I know I'm a bit of an outlier on this, I actually thought that as a suspense movie it was reasonably well done. The story is straightforward and it is suspenseful, with a lot of unanswered questions coming up as it progresses. It's about a mother out for a jog who suddenly finds out that there's been a school shooting at her son's high school. She's far away, she has no vehicle and she's desperate to find out exactly what happened and if her son is safe, which she tries to do by keeping in touch with people and events on her cell phone. The mom is played by Naomi Watts and for the most part this is a one woman movie, so it rises and falls on (a) the strength of the underlying story and (b) the performance of Watts. Both, I thought, were fine. I wanted to find out what happened and how this was going to play out as desperately as Amy (the mom) did. I thought that it was a bit unrealistic in the way Amy was able to be in almost constant touch with the police at the school (and even, in the end, play a role in bringing the incident to its conclusion) but I could suspend my disbelief enough to still find this suspenseful enough to hold my attention throughout.
Don't watch this looking for traditional "thrills" because you won't find those. It really does have a more old-fashioned "suspense" feel to it, and it works fairly well if looked at that way. (7/10)
Don't watch this looking for traditional "thrills" because you won't find those. It really does have a more old-fashioned "suspense" feel to it, and it works fairly well if looked at that way. (7/10)