Red Eye (2005) ***

http://www.redeye-themovie.com/

Directed by Wes Craven

Written by Carl Ellsworth

Review by Larry Stanley

With Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Brian Cox, Jayma Mays, Jack Scalia

In Dallas for her grandmother's funeral, Lisa Reisart (McAdams) has to catch the red eye flight back to Miami to make it to work the next day at the Lux Atlantic Resorts. As a manager there, she is a first class problem solver and that is good since the next big name staying with them is Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Charles Keefe (Scalia).

After rushing to the airport she finds that her flight is delayed because of bad weather, Lisa helps one of the airline representatives deal with an irate customer and in this process meets a charming young man with a nice smile. The two meet again in the airport lounge and they kill time by talking to each other. His name is Jackson Rippner and he never goes by "Jack".

When the call comes to board the plane they end up sitting next to each other. And this is where it starts getting good. Because while Jackson is a charming guy with a nice smile who seems to know just what to say and how to act in certain situations he is also a cold blooded killer who has been hired to force Lisa to change the room Keefe is staying in. To accomplish this he and one of his partners have threatened to murder Lisa's father (Brian Cox).

Writer Carl Ellsworth has really done a great job with this story. Putting Lisa in the situation of being 35,000 feet straight up and with no choice but to follow Jackson's demands we see that she has not been placed in the standard thriller movie woman role of just screaming and not having any idea what to do.

Lisa is always thinking, and the set ups are seen in various parts of the film. And while not always explained, they work out perfectly. Lisa has a few secrets of her own, and puts all of them to good use against Rippner. The major part of the movie takes place on the plane and demonstrates that simply with words and very little action how much tension can be generated if done correctly. This is pure talent, solid through and through.

Ellsworth is a truly gifted writer; all he needs to do is stay with the right cast and director.

McAdams, after her success in Wedding Crashers, demonstrates that she can be forceful and dynamic without over acting or searching for laughs from the audience. She is someone that most of the women viewers will certainly be able to relate to.

Murphy, in his first film since Batman Begins is a smooth talking, villain of the type that you just love to hate. He comes across as gentle most of the time and seems like the sort of person you would be glad to strike up a little talk with if you had some time to kill.Craven makes excellent use of Murphy's eyes, mouth and gentle features.

I think that while he tried to make them a compass to the character, they also got more pronounced as the movie got nearer and neared a final climax. And yes, Craven did fall into his natural character near the end of the movie. It did create a bunch of times when the viewer (me, particularly) wanted to yell at Lisa, "no, don't open that." And it never mattered because by that time the movie had me so wrapped up that nothing could sway me from what was going on.

After the disastrous "Cursed" it is nice to be able to say proudly that I am a Wes Craven fan. I was for years, but God that movie was bad. But Red Eye is a real change of pace for Craven. Wes Craven is the guy who almost single-handedly created a new genre in film, with his tongue in cheek horror film style of "Scream", now goes after an Alfred Hitchcock type film and by the Celluloid Gods, the man succeeds where so many others have failed.

And while I don't think he is better then Hitchcock, this movie is so close to what the Master would have done it would be hard to slip a sheet of paper between them.

Now, I had a massive problem with this film between the time I first saw a trailer for it and it's final trailers where it became apparent what the film was about. See, in the first trailers they led us to believe the film was more horror; a film with grave supernatural overtones. With a red light reflected in Murphy's eye and an image of McAdams hand against the window of the plane, and Craven's name on the film I and a lot of others thought this was going to be a nifty movie about Death claiming a victim or something like that. What we got was totally different. And totally excellent, but that is beside the point; I want to see the film about Death coming after someone on a plane. Come on, which director is going to do this one or do I have to grab a digital camera and do it myself? Any volunteers? Hey kids, lets make a movie!!

Oh well; Red Eye runs 1:25. It is rated PG-13 for "intense scenes of violence, and language" and probably would be fine for teens.

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