Raw, harrowing ‘Dannemora’
Ben Stiller’s prison break masterpiece. Review,
You know the story, or maybe just parts of it. In 2015, two men tunneled out of Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York. They had the help of a civilian woman who worked there, with whom both had sex. A multimillion-dollar manhunt followed. One inmate was shot and killed, the other was captured.
The seedy sexual details and “Shawshank Redemption”-style escape made the story of the prison break ripe for Hollywood treatment, and that’s exactly what Showtime has given it in “Escape at Dannemora,” a limited series starring Benicio del Toro, Paul Dano and Patricia Arquette as the trio at the center of the tale.
What could have been a rote retelling of a familiar news story is instead a transformative work that so vividly brings the drama to life it might as well be brandnew to its audience. Created by Brett Johnson and Michael Tolkin, “Dannemora” (Sunday, 10 EST/PST, ★★★★) features seven episodes all directed by Ben Stiller, who makes a stunning case for becoming a fulltime director. His gorgeous and haunting work, combined with a career-best performance from Arquette, helps “Dannemora” transcend into one of the best TV experiences of the year.
“Dannemora” unfolds its story with the same patience and urgency required of inmates to tunnel out of a prison. After a brief opening set during the manhunt for David Sweat (Dano) and Richard Matt (Del Toro), “Dannemora” flashes back months before the escape, when Sweat and Matt work at the prison tailor shop, where they’re supervised by Joyce “Tilly” Mitchell (Arquette).
The prison is rife with lax security and inappropriate conduct. As the series kicks off, Tilly and Sweat are already engaged in their tryst, sneaking off into the back of the tailor shop for sex at regular intervals. Matt is respected among inmates and even liked by the guards, especially Gene Palmer (David Morse), for whom he regularly paints surprisingly gorgeous portraits. By chance, Matt discovers a catwalk behind his “honor” cell block and surmises the pair could cut through the back of their cells with hacksaws and find a way out. He, too, seduces Tilly, and she begins smuggling hacksaw blades and other supplies to the pair as they make slow progress through the bowels of the prison.
It may be hard for some viewers to reconcile the star of “Zoolander 2” with the excruciatingly raw and harrowing direction of “Dannemora,” but the proof is in the proverbial pudding. Stiller shows himself more than able to direct drama, thrills and action in a series that relies on all three. The director creates an intimacy with his shooting style, emphasizing the dreary, cramped na- ture of the prison and the desperation of the prisoners. The visceral, evocative way he follows the men through the physically taxing escape is powerful and terrifying. One scene that shows Sweat nearly getting stuck inside an 18-inch steam pipe is shot so claustrophobically, you may find yourself struggling to catch your breath.
When Stiller turns the camera to Tilly, we find another story of a human who feels imprisoned. Arquette is nearly unrecognizable in the role, carrying extra weight and sporting a heavy accent to capture the woman you’ve seen on the news. But the actress imbues Tilly – who has been derided in tabloids – a depth missing from the media narrative. It’s clear she imagined greater things for herself than supervising sewing inmates and marrying a dorky repairman, and her affairs provide her own form of escape even before she’s clued in on the plan.
The writers restrain themselves from telling viewers too much about Matt and Sweat at the beginning of the series, and the pure propulsion of their daring escape, plus the affability of both Del Toro and Dano, at first tricks you into rooting for them. By the time they escape, the writers and Stiller manage to make the most familiar part of the story incredibly taut and tense, even if the tragic ending is predictable.
Hollywood producers have a habit of snapping up the rights to real-life triumphs and tragedies (the rescue of the young Thai soccer players this summer from a flooded cave is one high-profile example). Sometimes the films and TV series that result can be exploitative, more about sensationalism than art. “Dannemora” is the best possible version of a strangerthan-fiction truth told fictionally. The right director at the right time with the right actors and the right story can turn the salacious into the superb.
It’s a feat almost as rare and as difficult as breaking out of prison.