Following fine genre efforts such as "Disturbia", "Taking Lives" and "The Saltom Sea" - D. J. Caruso has directed a taught contained psychological thriller of enthralling rising tension and refreshingly streamlined machanics about the fierce sacredness of motherhood. Featuring an interesting lead character arriving on the scene with plenty of existential baggage as brought to nuanced life by the stunning Rainey Qualley who reveals a true screen presence. Competently proving her place in a family of accomplished actresses (her mother is Andie MacDowell or "Greystoke", "Green Card" and "Groundhog Day" fame, while her sister is Margaret Qualley most notable for her memorable appearance in Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood").
From a renowned "blacklist" script by Melanie Toast, the premise is rather simple: Jessica is a recovering drug addict and struggling single mother of a pre-school age daughter Lainey and infant son Mason. The film opens on a bucolic scene of small Lainey frolicking through orchids collecting apples to gift to her mother who is scrambling inside a two-story country home to multitask attending to her infant son Mason while on the phone assuring that she is clean and sober to begin a prospective employment opportunity in Texas and also diligently preparing to vacate the rustic address of her recently passed Nanna (who had apparently been helping Jessica with a homebase to reclaim her sobriety). Cleaning up and packing what little she has into her small vehicle parked on the dirt driveway outside, Jessica gets accidently locked inside the kitchen pantry when the brick she is using as a stop slides under the door elevation. Young Lainey being unable to turn the outside latch to free Jessica, she is most aggrivatingly stuck inside the small space - surrounded mostly by her late Nanna's homemade Apple Butter preservatives. Having evidently had some troubles in the past (likely regarding custodianship issues), Jessica hesitates to call 911 for assistance on her cellphone, whilst Lainey suddenly informs her someone has arrived outside. It's her estranged junkie ex-boyfriend Rob (Jake Horowitz) showing up unannounced. Through the door, Jessica instructs Lainey to lock herself in the upstairs bedroom with Mason, already fretting how unhinged Rob might be. To her initial relief, Rob releases Jessica from the preserve pantry. But she soon observes Rob is clearly tweaking and is further disturbed to find he is accompanied by fellow junkie and kiddie diddler Sammy (Vincent Gallo). Jessica attempts to discreetly ask Rob why he would bring a child molester like Sammy anywhere near their children, but Sammy intercepts, intercedes, and interjects with a counter accusation to insidiously stir up Rob's violent insecurities at being seemingly undermined and dismissed by the newly sober Jessica. Rob wanting to pathetically prove his dominace in front of Sammy, strikes Jessica - slapping her cellphone to the ground - and shoves her back into the pantry, shutting her in. He tosses a small baggie of dope under the door and proclaims he will return once she's back to being the user partner he wants her to be for him. Assuring she cannot simply call upon Lainey to achieve turning the outside latch and releasing her, Rob nails a couple of boards onto the outside frame of the door - the first point of which pierces Jessica's palm as her hand beared against the inside pleading for release. Injured and alone, she must search for a way to escape before the unhinged duo of Rob and (especially) Sammy return, while also verbally instructing Lainey how to feed and take car of herself and Mason until she can get free. As frustration mounts, so too does the temptation to relapse and use again linger and grow.
Featuring very believable yet judicial characterizations of children - both perfunctory and in peril. The two villianous junkie friends are dimensional enough, and it's particularly welcome to see Vincent Gallo return to effective character work after having eshewed the movie making business for some years. Cinematographer Akis Konstantakopolous is a new name to me, but his lighting and lensing here are evocative and depict a dramtically dynamic adherance to subjective point-of-view. The compositional duo whom comprise the Mondo Boys moniker are another new name to me, but their music score here is appropriately tense and atmospheric. The editing is crisp and crescendos nicely into a decently plausible climax. With subtle religious invocations, the story ultimately resolves on a pertinent yet subtle moral theme of resilience and redemption.
Oh, and some commotion exist regarding the fact that the movie also happens to be the first official production of the upstart politically conservative news outlet Daily Wire - whose ambitions here appears to simply be an earnest desire to create quality content which doesn't insult or subvert the conservative perspective - rather than proselytize any sort of overt ideological skew as a priority over dramatic weight.
Overall, "Shut In" is a very credible effort to which I give a most respectable 7/10 rating and recommend with nearly no reservation.
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