Stephen Dorff Gets Trapped in Deeply Flawed ‘Brake’

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HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 2.5/5.0
Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – With obvious comparisons to “24” and “Buried,” Gabe Torres’ “Brake” comes with a bit of referential baggage in its trunk. Also in there is Secret Service Agent Jeremy Reins (Stephen Dorff), a man trapped in a nightmarish kidnapping situation in the trunk of a car. He wakes up there and it’s where the vast majority of “Brake” takes place as he’s tortured physically and mentally by a group of terrorists trying to find the Executive Branch’s secret bunker.

Much like “Buried,” “Brake” is a one-man, real-time, claustrophobic location piece. Instead of “Ryan Reynolds in a coffin,” this one is “Stephen Dorff in a trunk,” although it does carve out enough of its own personality to stand apart from the comparisons and not feel like the rip-off that you might expect from the previews. Dorff is stellar and the film builds some tension but a bit too much required suspension of disbelief, some plot holes, weak dialogue, and two increasingly silly twist endings ultimately sink the piece. It’s only opening in major cities, however, so it will be essentially straight-to-DVD for most audiences in a few months and, judged on that standard, it’s a decent rental.

Brake
Brake
Photo credit: IFC Films

Agent Jeremy Reins is about to have a VERY bad morning. He wakes up in the aforementioned trunk and finds himself staring at a series of numbers…a ticking countdown. Every time it hits zero, something major happens like a new phone call, movement by the car, or bees. Yes, bees. Reins is being tortured. He has a ham radio and eventually has a phone. He begins talking to a man in another trunk with his own countdown and mental and physical torture. He also eventually communicates with his wife Molly (Chyler Leigh) and learns that she’s having a bad day as well. What do Jeremy’s captors want? Will he give it to them? Will he get out of the trunk? What kind of car has that kind of space?

As with Ryan Reynolds in “Buried,” “Brake” is almost entirely a one-man show and Dorff more than lives up to the challenge. He’s quite good here, perfectly selling the unique, high-speed arc of his character from angry to frightened to heroic and back around again. Dorff has shown signs of brilliance as an actor in the past and I’ve always wondered why he didn’t get better parts. With Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere” and now this part perhaps he will finally move on to the lists that he should be on. He has the skills.

Brake
Brake
Photo credit: IFC Films

Sadly, he’s let down by a script that gets more and more ridiculous as it goes along. “Brake” has a bit of a thin grip on dialogue throughout but the writing becomes truly problematic the further it goes along. The first thing that’s likely to dawn on viewers is that this is a ridiculously complicated plan on the part of Jeremy’s captors that relies on a LOT of variables that wouldn’t necessarily come through. It’s kind of nonsense but those of us who suspended disbelief for “24” go with it. Until twist ending number one, which is kinda crazy, but is compounded by twist ending number two, which is LUDICROUS. It makes what came before seem even sillier in retrospect. Before the final act, someone on the team behind “Brake” should have yelled stop.

“Brake” stars Stephen Dorff, Chyler Leigh, Tom Berenger, and Pruitt Taylor Vince. It was written by Timothy Mannion and directed by Gabe Torres. It opens in New York on March 23rd, 2012.

HollywoodChicago.com content director Brian Tallerico

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

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