Well it damn near took ‘em til Labor Day to get around to it, but at long last our entertainment enablers in Hollywood finally offer up the kind of hair-raising, substantive thriller the suspense-starved masses have been craving all summer. Welcome back, Wes Craven, and kudos on what very well could be the most skillful bit of movie direction so far this year.
“Red Eye” rocks harder than an airplane in a thunderstorm, which is precisely where always-in-control luxury hotel manager Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams … schwiiiiing!!!!) finds herself trapped when Jackson (a chilling Cillian Murphy), the charming guy who’s been making time with her since check-in, reveals his true intentions: He needs Lisa to assist him in a plot to assassinate the Deputy Security of Homeland Security. He assures her that if she refuses to help, another operative will kill her father (Brian Cox) before the plane touches down — and that’s the jolt that sets the spine-tingling story in motion.
Don’t be fooled by the misleading ad campaign, the most compelling moments of the movie are hardly limited to the bumpy plane ride. After Lisa and Jackson arrive in Miami, Craven and first-time scripter Carl Ellsworth really raise the stakes. Now, if one were to carefully dissect the plot mechanism you might find some inconsistencies, but what Craven adroitly and subtly manages to do without so much as a single distracting CG extravagance is to keep the focus squarely on Lisa’s desperate plight: Saving herself, her family and a high-ranking government official from a ruthless killer. Across the board, the execution in “Red Eye” is superb, with McAdams and Murphy emerging as one of the most captivating pairs of this or any other year. Move over Vince and Owen, your leading lady’s flying high in her latest film and is poised to take over the box office. (Rated PG-13 for some violence, and language. Running time: 86 minutes)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 19, 2005. Read the original PDF.