Wrecked (2010)

Very well executed

Absolutely the worst movie.

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This is going to be a very short review because, frankly, there isn't much to say about Wrecked. The first 20 to 30 minutes of the film consists of Adrien Brody trapped in a wrecked car deep in the forest… For the remaining 65 minutes, we get to see Brody crawling around the forest / wilderness. Throw in a hallucination here and a mountain lion there, and that's the whole film. Not too entertaining, even with the few appearances of the mountain lion – and that says a lot about the approach director Michael Greenspan took with the film. Despite Adrien being a great actor and doing his absolute best with the script, the film never really delivers on the suspense or the thrills. It's a one-man show that goes absolutely nowhere, and that's not Brody's fault. Greenspan never picks up the pace of the film; he uses flashbacks and hallucinations ineffectively; and tries to build suspense around a story-line that just doesn't have any. If you want to see a great survival film with few characters that gets it right, watch Frozen, 127 Hours with James Franco, or the classic Cast Away with Tom Hanks.

Imagine for a minute that you wake up bludgeoned, battered, bloody and bruised pinned in a steel death trap at the base of a mountain with no recollection of how or why you are there, with the only sign of humanity being an unknown corpse in the back seat. This "in medias res" beginning is how Director Michael Greenspan and Writer Christopher Dodd start off their debut feature film titled Wrecked.Wrecked is a story of a man (played by Adrian Brody) that has just awoken in the after math of a major car accident in what appears to be a ravine with only a corpse (and his deteriorating mind) to accompanying him. After a days worth of struggle Brody finally frees himself from the constraints of the wreckage only to crawl through hellacious terrain while trying to ward off haunting hallucinations that have manifested from guilt of an incident he can't even remember.Brody's performance is nothing short of spectacular especially considering the sheer screen time and lack of dialogue he has in the film, however this didn't stop him from portraying an ineffable range of emotion throughout. Brody isn't the only star on deck however, Cinematographer James Liston emphasizes this by employing juxtaposed high and low angle shot's to help shroud Brody's already enigmatic mind. The story however seem to have a couple "hiccups" that take away from the overall verisimilitude of the film which can be a deal breaker for some. This should not deter anyone from the film, it is well worth the time.

I cannot understand why this film wasn't better received, especially among the Commenters herein. Though "survival" films are a sub-genre many find tedious, Iwas intrigued throughout, both with the survival aspect and the back story about how our "man" got there in the first place. I cannot say that the "back story" was wholly satisfying, though it was/is an interesting idea to tease the viewer with the idea that the survival being so fervently sought is neither deserved nor rewardable. Brody was great: Think how few actors could pull this role off as well. I can understand how some viewers would become impatient, especially the slogging through the woods second half. For some reason I found myself becoming frustrated FOR our character, as opposed to frustrated with the film. Such translated into entertainment for me. I'll take ideas, technique and perseverance over big production every time.

This is a first, driven to an IMDb review by the most horrible boring dull movie I have ever wasted 90minutes of my life on. Pity IMDb does not have a rating of 0 (zero), this movie gets a 1 by default. Half way through I thought I would push-on in the hope that something other than swaying pine trees and long agonizing shots of one of the 4 actors might happen, but alas more of the same. I did run the rest of the movie at 2X speed and it made no difference to the agony but did mean I could get to the stove 15minutes quicker to clean it - this task was preferable to watching this piece of garbage. Save your money time and life and do anything else rather than watch this movie