Red Eye: Movie & DVD Review (2005)

(Originally published 2005)

The new Wes Craven thriller "Red Eye" is among the director's finest efforts, a lean, focused work that concentrates much of its claustrophobic terror within the not-so-friendly skies.

This surprisingly smart, insidious little film from first-time feature writer Carl Ellsworth is really just a collection of cliches, but they are assembled so well and directed with such verve, the familiar groove they create allows for a movie that achieves an admirable briskness.

The film is never dull. It stars Rachel McAdams ("The Wedding Crashers," "The Notebook") as hotel manager Lisa Reisert, who is exactly the sort of person you want in your corner should you ever arrive at your destination with a bum reservation.

Efficient and accommodating to a level that suggests she's next in line for sainthood, Lisa, when we first see her, is busy multitasking her way to LAX, where she plans to board a plane that will take her home to Miami. Problem is, the weather outside is frightful, with a hail of electrical storms keeping her grounded in Los Angeles longer than she anticipated.

This is of particular concern to Lisa since soon to arrive at her hotel is deputy secretary of homeland security Charles Keefe (Jack Scalia), a VIP guest whose own security is of obvious national importance.

Still, what can she do? When it comes to the airlines, we're all at their mercy. So when she meets-cute with fellow stranded passenger Jackson Rippner (Cillian Murphy), whose disarming sense of humor and quirky good looks heighten her attraction to him, there's the sense in Lisa's reluctant smile that being delayed in the company of a stranger sometimes has its advantages.

And sometimes it doesn't. The moment they board the plane and are seated next to each other, the nightmare for Lisa begins, with Jackson quickly dropping the cute act and demanding that she make a phone call to change Keefe's room to that of another, where he will be assassinated. If she chooses not to make the call, her father (Brian Cox) will be executed. If she does, Keefe and his family will be dead.

And so unfolds Craven's taut cat-and-mouse game, with the director of the "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies and the "Scream" series moving in a new direction to design a kinetic film that doesn't ingore his past.

The film is at its best while we're on the plane. In its tight, intimate closeups of its jittery stars, what you notice are traces of Hitchcock (the sexual undertones, the reality within the surreal) infused with De Palma's slick, sloping camerawork. It's all sold to you by Craven, who tips his hat to them without forgetting to wear his own.

Toward the end, when we're on the ground running and Craven has unleashed his new modern-day monster, the director holds true to his roots by cleverly recalling another monster. Just who and how won't be revealed here, but it's a nice touch and well worth the ride to find out.

Grade: B+