Wes Craven’s “Red Eye” is a movie that aspires to be a great thriller, and while it certainly makes strides toward achieving that goal, it is never reached. It’s Further Enhanced By The Presence Of Rachel McAdams, Who Is Outstanding In Everything She’s In, But Whose Performance Here Is Savvy Because It Is Key. Thrillers can be oxygen masks for actors looking to overdo it, but McAdams manages to stay realistic while scratching the surface of various levels of action. When she is on the hunt for a hockey stick-wielding terrorist, she behaves like a genuine woman hunting down a legitimate terrorist with an authentic hockey stick. And trust me, it is much harder than it sounds.
Cillian Murphy portrays the terrorist indeed, the villainous Scarecrow from ‘Batman Begins’. In the movie, he acts as a young fellow who seems charming to the protagonist, only for him to coldly retort, “Business? As fate would have it, my business is all about you” whenever she pries deep into information about him.
They first encounter each other at the Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport. Lisa, a hotel desk manager, is on her trip back home from Miami when he meets the “cute” fellow who berated a jerk at the bar, offered her a drink, and awkwardly sits next to her on the plane. Lisa said that Murphy is handsome, but, like James Spader, the good looks come with a warning: There are ominous undertones here. Disney princesses do not exist. He gently states that he has kidnapped her father. Therefore, in order to save him, Liza will have to aid him in plotting the murder of the Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security. He elaborates on the job she has been given: call the hotel and instruct the guard to allow her into the suite where it would be easy for her to assassinate him. The tone of this is troubling yet inspiring at the same time: it demonstrates how much power the deputy secretary thinks he possesses.
The sets on the airplane are about as plausible as they can be given the situation, and about the plot, I will say no more. It is astounding that such terrorists still have their feet intact. Along with, of course, the factor that the terrorist plan is set around an outlandish complication that could go wrong nine times out of ten. The scenes after the plane lands portray a unique excellence to the kind of plot where the killer and the target do a never-ending cat-and-mouse game. But, the set might be lacking or dull in mental stimulation sneaking behind the rest of the world and the reality of the situation. What makes this goal worthy of a thriller is the over-the-top plan and the details of the event.
What I appreciate most about this movie is its understatement. After a summer filled with collisions, explosions, endless chases, and special effects that overshadow the actors, it feels like a relief to watch thriller characters actually participate in actions that a real person would do. There are no you-are-there feats in the film unless you consider the blithering trifling that one of the characters suffers an unanticipated tracheotomy and is not remotely slowed down by it. The movie, bless its heart, even attempts to rationalize this by giving a doctor who takes a look at the unfortunate and says (I quote from memory), “It’s not that bad. Only the larynx.”
Rachel McAdams’s rise to fame has been incredible, but mostly because it has been so rapid. In 2002 she was the 8th billed star in the movie “The Hot Chick.” The only thing that would have been more ridiculous is if she had been 9th. But then in 2004, she was cast in “Mean Girls” as the most popular and vicious girl in high school with Lindsay Lohan.
It truly was an exceptional film, and then followed a more straight-faced romantic performance in “The Notebook” along with a comical romantic performance in “Wedding Crashers,” where Owen Wilson fell head over heels and caught a very sincere case of love. And now, this.
I suspect Cillian Murphy is already well-known so there is no need to discover him, but he does demonstrate a remarkable ability to modulate his character instead of gnashing the scenery. In general, they are very effective together in the “Red Eye” covers which are more important indeed and make casting directors pay attention to Murphy. She flaunts more presence and credibility in her role than is expected, which is her grounding as a Canadian. To understand this piece, you need to know that McAdams is thoroughly Canadian, and you must realize that. Way too many young Hollywood actors, especially in thrillers, make her performance think it’s all about them. She qualifies her performance for moderate roles.
Wes Craven, the director, has been making thrillers for a long time and knows how to do it. He has always made an effort to incorporate plots and character development in his work, rather than only focusing on enormous shocks. Craven is famed for the story of “Last House on the Left” (1972), Swamp Thing (1982), The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994), and the Scream movies. While watching “Red Eye” I remembered what Howard Hawks said about movies needing three great scenes and no bad scenes. Craven gets two and one. Not bad.
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