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Directed by Wes CravenCast
Rachel McAdams (Lisa Reisert)
Cillian Murphy (Jackson Rippner)
Brian Cox (Joe Reisert)
Jayma Mays (Cynthia)
Angela Paton (Nice Lady)
Loren Lester (Irate Passenger)
Jack Scalia (Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security)
Here is a movie that defines the term “breezy.” It zooms by so fast and with so little hassle and not a moment of boredom that you almost have to wonder—after the credits finish rolling—if you even watched the movie at all and why you still have half a bag of popcorn left. Don’t mistake this for negative criticism: Red Eye is a fine candycorn thriller, and quite a quick ride. But it goes down so smoothly you might mistake it for a poorer movie, like Cellular, which it closely resembles but far exceeds it in terms of style, performances, and overall clip. Cellular seems to go far over its running time, while Red Eye feels like it’s a half hour. A good half hour.
The film marks a bit of a departure for director Wes Craven, usually associated with teen horror like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream. It isn’t anywhere as off the grenre map as his other previous departure from horror, the maudlin and unwatchable Music of the Heart. Red Eye stays close to Craven’s familiar territory, suspense, but in the framework of the Hitchcockian thriller aimed at an older audience. Craven knows suspense much better than the average Hollywood director, and plays it to the hilt in the claustrophobic setting that recalls similar Hitchcock experiments like Lifeboat, Rear Window, and Rope.
Red Eye sets itself on an airplane, and from the very beginning Craven assaults the viewer with the true terrors of air travel: the endless cramped annoyances of it all. Clogged, noisy terminals; obnoxious pushy passengers; long lines at the check-in counter; sweaty tired people crammed together in a stuffy metal box. Forget about fear of a terrorist hijacking your plane, or the person sitting next to you threatening to murder your father unless you help him arrange a political assassination. The real fear of flying comes from the horrible hassel getting through it, and Craven captures the feeling of the business of the post-9/11 airways extremely well.
Once the plane takes off, the films gets down to the business of the genuine suspense. Lisa Riesert, the busy and fiercely competent manager of a posh Miami hotel, discovers that the man seated next to her with the unusual name of Jackson Rippner (get it?) has carefully arranged his meeting with her. What he wants: her clout as a hotel manager to move the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security from his usual suite to a new one. What she gets in return: a phone call that will let her father survive the night. Rippner has plenty of evidence that he can and will do what he claims, and Lisa—trapped on a bumpy flight to Florida with this cool calm killer—can do nothing about it.
Ah, but of course she can! Therein lies Red Eye’s suspense: watching Lisa try to work her way out of an unwinnable situation beneath the cold eyes of the super-professional Rippner. Craven crafts the tension, such as Lisa’s attempt to pass a note to a nosy passenger or leave a note in the lavatory, with expertise. He also lenses many of the scenes during unnerving turbulence that mirrors Lisa’s own rattled mind and makes viewers feel extra uncomfortable. These scenes have a palpable sense of edgy unease, and anyone with even the slightest concern about flying will understand the nightmare into which Lisa has fallen. (That Rippner seems not to notice the bumpy ride in the slightest only makes it creepier.)
Craven also has the fortune to have two great rising stars as his leads, both of whom sell the slick entertainment flick as if their lives (or at least careers) depended on it. Cillian Murphy, who made a freakish impression on audiences as Scarecrow in the summer’s best film, Batman Begins,
essentially gives the same performance here as a silky smooth and calm-faced psychopath who gets pushed to the edge when his plans start to crumble. In the finale he even starts speaking in the scratchy voice of Scarecrow, which will strike viewers of Batman Begins as quite weird. As well as Cillian Murphy plays the role, the combination of Red Eye and Batman Begins may get him typecast in lunatic parts if he isn’t careful. His agent should get him cast in a romantic comedy or period drama next. I think he would make a great Solomon Kane. Or Dracula.
Don’t worry about Rachel McAdams, however. After last year’s Mean Girls and the recent Wedding Crashers, McAdams has poised herself to become one the hot new female properties, and Red Eye will add huge points to her versatility scorecard. Her captivating but down-to-earth beauty and realistic portrayal of panic, fear, and determination make her a great screen presence. Lisa Riesert has elements of the standard panicky damsel-in-distress, but McAdams infuses her with an intelliegence and defiance that will put audiences in her corner from the beginning. Even though Brian Cox as her father doesn’t have much to do in the movie except lounge around on a lazy-boy while an assassin waits outside his house, McAdams really makes you feverishly hope she can prevent his murder.
Red Eye doesn’t fly high the whole way. Considering the areo-centric advertising, the claustrophobic plane is the setting for only the middle section of the movie. When the story hits the ground earlier than anticipated it turns into a more ordinary chase thriller. The jumps do come, but the typical setting sands off some of the edge. At least it never wears out its welcome. Unlike the modern pains of air travel, Red Eye is an airplane you can board quickly, have a smooth and pleasant flight (fright?), and then deplane an hour and a half later with your luggage waiting for you at the gate.