Retreat Review
Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 10.21.2011
Cillian Murphy, Jamie Bell and Thandie Newton star in this psychological thriller about a trio trapped on a deserted island with a deadly disease at their door...or is it? 411's Jeremy Thomas checks in with his full review!
Directed by: Carl Tibbetts & Janice Hallett Written by: Carl Tibbetts
Starring: Cillian Murphy - Martin Kennedy Thandie Newton - Kate Kennedy Jamie Bell - Jack Coleman Jimmy Yuill - Doug Marilyn Mantle - Mrs. Doug
Running Time: 90 minutes
Rated R for violence and for language throughout
Psychological thrillers are a tricky genre to pull off correctly. It is a category that requires a deft hand and perhaps more importantly a lot of trust in the audience. The movie-goer has to be willing to accept the premise of the film and the plot developments that are contained therein, for one thing. Perhaps most importantly though, unlike many other genres the plot developments can't just follow a well-traveled path because the necessary air of mystery and uncertainty and what will happen next is increasingly difficult with every thriller that comes along. Still, the genre has been home to some of the great films in cinematic history such as The Manchurian Candidate, Taxi Driver, Memento, the original Straw Dogs and many more. It is within this high-risk, high-potential brand of movie-making that first-time writer director Carl Tibbetts ' nail-biter Retreat finds itself. Starring Cillian Murphy, Thandie Newton and Jamie Bell, the film attempts to make its name in a limited release this weekend.
The film stars Murphy and Newton and Martin and Kate, a couple whose marriage is suffering through difficult times following the stillbirth of their first child. In an attempt to patch things up, the couple takes off from London to a remote and uninhabited island off the coast of Scotland, where they had a romantic vacation years earlier. Driven out to the island by old Doug (Yuill), who rents out the cottage there, they try to find some sort of balance without much success at first. Martin is a more sensitive type of man who tries to recapture their previous vacation with plans of walks around the island and eating what fish he catches, but Kate is clearly the more wounded of the two and is more interested in writing her latest article in her career as a journalist. To make matters worse, the generator in the cottage is giving them constant trouble and eventually goes out, and when they try to get Doug on the CB radio, there's no luck.
This rapidly-failing attempt at reconciliation gets another monkeywrench thrown in when they find a man in military fatigues and a nasty head wound staggering up from the coastline. The man identifies himself as Private Jack Corman (Bell), a British soldier, and tells the couple that there is an airborne strain of flu with a 100% fatality rate that has taken over the mainland. Jack insists that they seal up the house to avoid contamination. Kate thinks the man is delusional and likely dangerous, while Martin is afraid to take the chance that Jack may be right. They go along with Jack's plan at first, but when the man starts acting increasingly erratically, the couple begins to wonder if there is any threat at all, or if they're at the mercy of a madman. The now-captive couple has to use inner resources they didn't know they had in order to try and outwit Jack and learn the truth—if he is in fact lying—before it's too late.
Retreat was co-written by Carl Tibbetts and Janice Hallett, based on Tibbetts' original screenplay. The film draws clear inspiration from previous psychological thriller classics. The presence of a couple trying to escape their environment to work on their marriage following tragedy and encountering a third party who forces them to do so in a way they cannot brings to mind very vivid memories of Phillip Noyce's Dead Calm, with dashes of Straw Dogs, 28 Days Later and Knife in the Water thrown in for flavor. The premise is solid and while it seems a bit unlikely at first, the twists and turns of the plot help it make a lot of sense down the road.
This is essentially a three-person film with a simple yet effective three acts. The first gives us time to understand Martin and Kate and give a hint as to the troubles besetting their marriage, and where they now stand about it. The second act introduces Jack and creates the threat outside their current environment while the third act is all about revelations and the characters learning exactly what they're capable of. Tibbetts and Hallett to a pretty decent job with the pacing of those acts, building the relationship before tossing the wild card in. One of the harder parts of making a thriller like this work is not pushing the audience's suspension of disbelief so far that it might break, and while that suspension may strain a couple of times, it never truly snaps.
One of the key reasons that the web of credibility does not fall apart is the performances from the cast. Cillian Murphy, Thandie Newton and Jamie Bell are all capable actors who have delivered great performances in the past, though at times it has seemed like Newton and Bell's films were made of weaker stuff than either deserved. This is a script that gives them a chance to stretch those acting muscles and with the camera focused on just the three of them for almost every minute of the hour and a half running time, they perform quite admirably. Bell gives a performance here that is the best work he's done since he blew audiences away in Billy Elliot, his 2002 debut. His work makes Jack a manic, clearly dangerous man but he is also very persuasive as well, so we as the audience have an easier time buying that Martin would go along with Jack's tale. There is a desperation and conviction in him that is impossible to deny, and while the character clearly has something he's not letting on, that something doesn't start to creep out for some time.
Newton is equally good here. Kate has the biggest transformation in the film from start to finish and in many ways the film succeeds or fails based on her making that transformation believable. She makes it work and brings to mind elements of horror movie heroines to the role. She provides a strong counter to Jack's masculine aggressiveness and it makes for an interesting dynamic. Murphy doesn't have as meaty of a role as Newton or Bell; his husband is the kind of sensitive guy who audiences often decry as "the weak character" in films of this nature. However, that isn't to say he's not resourceful and Murphy makes the character very likable and never lets the character's inherent submissiveness derail or bog down the pace of the move.
As a first-time director, Tibbetts does an excellent job building the elements of a solid thriller here. The tension builds slowly but inexorably throughout the course of the first two acts. Tibbetts effectively uses the house to establish tone; when the couple first arrives, there is a sense of almost welcoming hominess to the place. It looks very much like the kind of cottage you might rent on the beach, charmingly rustic and sure it has its primitive eccentricities—generator problems and such—but that just adds to the quaintness. As the film progresses and Jack comes in, the house gets boarded up and the openness is replaced by an oppressive, closed-in nature. It is never as overtly claustrophobic as Alien or The Descent but the subtlety of it suits the film well. Tibbetts shoots the film well, often setting the shots up with stray rays of light to give the sense of a family under siege. By the time the film gets to the third act and things spiral out of control, he shifts the tone effectively without making it so jarring as to lose credibility. With all the growing tension and undercurrent buzzing through, Tibbetts lets it loose in third act as a cathartic sort of energy release to good effect.
The film isn't perfect though, certainly. Some of the conceits that have to be accepted in the premise aren't the easiest to swallow, particularly during the revelatory stage. Additionally, once the tension has ramped up and Martin and Kate decide it's time to take control of their fate, the film quickly dispenses with their relationship problems via a quick, overly neat scene as if to say "Okay, that's disposed of, now back to the danger." That would be a bit more acceptable in a film that speaks less on relationships in its theme, though it doesn't sink the film by any definition. It merely makes it a bit less fulfilling.
Tibbetts has a very good crew working with him on his first feature. Cinematographer Chris Seager gets some beautiful footage of the island on which the film takes place, capturing the majesty while not letting the isolation take a backseat. He contrasts that well with what's going on inside the home. The score by Ilan Eshkeri, who has done good work on such films as Stardust and The Young Victoria, does a fine job of letting the music help tell the story without overdoing it. Score can be absolutely essential in a thriller and this film's enhances rather than detracts.
It must be noted that this is a rather grim film. That is certainly no statement against it; that particular tone serves this particular genre quite well. The mood of the film remains oppressive and never really gives the audience the chance to breath until it's over. That may not make for the most commercially-viable film, where mainstream audiences often want their tension served with a decent dose of comedic balance, but it does give this film exactly what it needs to be a quality psychological thriller.
The 411: Carl Tibbetts' directorial debut Retreat is one of the better thrillers to come along this year. Featuring a solid premise that manages to never fully threatens its own credibility despite a couple plot points that could have done so. The performances by Cillian Murphy, Thandie Newton and Jamie Bell are all outstanding while Tibbetts gives the film a properly grim and claustrophobic feel. For those seeking a surprisingly great little psychological thriller, this is definitely one to check out.
