Meth addict Ashley is held hostage by escaped convict and murderer Brian Nichols. In order to try to avoid being killed, she reads to him from inspirational book The Purpose Drive Life.
This film is a fairly straightforward linear narrative, recounting the facts of Nichols' murderous escape from the courthouse, leading to his kidnapping Ashley, whereby the latter two thirds of the film becomes essentially a two-hander between Kate Mara as Ashley and David Oyelowo as Brian.
And I felt the film fell down here. Mara is very good, and Oyelowo is as good as he can be with a part which is underwritten, undeveloped, or just plain impossible to identify with: you understand Ashley perfectly, but I couldn't comprehend Brain at all. Oyelowo gives him a look which is halfway between blank and puzzled when he's not being angry, and I could never get to grips with the person there. And the hostage situation starts off well, but I don't much like inspirational books so, while it may well have helped Ashley, it did little for me, and I found the latter part of the film quite dull as a result. A shame, because it started well. I felt that what started as a suspense thriller turned out to be an extended commercial for a book which I had no interest in.
This film is a fairly straightforward linear narrative, recounting the facts of Nichols' murderous escape from the courthouse, leading to his kidnapping Ashley, whereby the latter two thirds of the film becomes essentially a two-hander between Kate Mara as Ashley and David Oyelowo as Brian.
And I felt the film fell down here. Mara is very good, and Oyelowo is as good as he can be with a part which is underwritten, undeveloped, or just plain impossible to identify with: you understand Ashley perfectly, but I couldn't comprehend Brain at all. Oyelowo gives him a look which is halfway between blank and puzzled when he's not being angry, and I could never get to grips with the person there. And the hostage situation starts off well, but I don't much like inspirational books so, while it may well have helped Ashley, it did little for me, and I found the latter part of the film quite dull as a result. A shame, because it started well. I felt that what started as a suspense thriller turned out to be an extended commercial for a book which I had no interest in.