MOVIE REVIEW
The Escapist (2008)
Vertigo Films
The opening shots of “The Escapist” provide an intriguing study in the ways those elements serve as a compacted distillation of the filmmaking interests borne out over the course of a feature. The film begins with Frank Perry (Brian Cox) sitting alone, a serious, concerned look affixed to his face as darkness shrouds him and Leonard Cohen plays on the soundtrack. It’s an introspective, peaceful moment that jarringly contrasts with the film’s next sequence, in which the title is introduced in large letters that fill the screen as we join, in process, the prison escape around which the narrative centers.
As a viewer, the natural inclination is to remember and place greater value on the kinetic, exciting action scene into which Mr. Wyatt thrusts us. But as the picture develops, it’s the first image that looms largest. That’s because the first-time feature filmmaker has taken a conventional B movie premise – a ragtag team of prisoners mastermind an elaborate escape – and turned it into a story of personal freedom and redemption.
He’s done so through two conceptual coups: The first, his decision to jumble temporality and interweave the heist with the planning preceding it lends the escape scenes added emotional resonance. The audience is consistently cognizant of who it is we’re watching escape, the psychological burdens carried by each man that have led him to that point and the subtle ways the process of planning the escape changed him.
Yet “The Escapist” is a specific character study, the portrait of an old prison lifer seemingly content to live out his days on a distant, passive emotional plane until being jostled out of his solitude by a rare communiqué from the outside world. As Frank urgently assembles the team, puts together the plan and finally becomes a proactive force within the prison walls, the audience is given profound insight into the damaged, painfully aware man beneath the sterile shell.
Mr. Wyatt provides Frank with a sparse back story, and he asks Mr. Cox to reveal a lifetime of self-disgust and disappointment without much dialogue. Fortunately, his star is a master of understatement, of using his gloomy eyes, his lined face and the intensity of feeling in a simple gaze or gesture to suggest the full measure of a man. It is the anchor around which “The Escapist” functions and the primary reason Mr. Wyatt’s film transcends the genre’s limitations.
THE ESCAPIST
Opened on April 3 in Manhattan.
Directed by Rupert Wyatt; written by Mr. Wyatt and Daniel Hardy; director of photography, Philipp Blaubach; edited by Joe Walker; music by Benjamin Wallfisch; production designer, Jim Furlong; produced by Adrian Sturges and Alan Moloney; released by IFC Films. Running time: 1 hour 42 minutes. This film is not rated.
WITH: Brian Cox (Frank Perry), Joseph Fiennes (Lenny Drake), Dominic Cooper (Lacey), Liam Cunningham (Brodie), Seu Jorge (Viv Batista), Damian Lewis (Rizza) and Steven Mackintosh (Tony).
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