FILM PICK OF THE WEEK
A classy doomsday thriller that benefits from an excellent script and the top-quality acting talent on board, this could easily be among the best films of the year but be warned it makes for very uncomfortable viewing.
It begins with one middle-class Brooklyn family attempting to do just that – escape from the city to find a bit of peace in the countryside for a few days.
Advertising executive Amanda (Julia Roberts) wakes up one morning and decides on a whim to book a luxury cottage on Long Island and whisk away her college professor husband Clay (Ethan Hawke) and their teenage son Archie (Charlie Evans) and pre-teen daughter Rose (Farrah Mackenzie) for a weekend away from the hustle and bustle of modern life.
They arrive at the house – enormous, luxurious with extensive grounds and a huge swimming pool – and once settled in, head to the beach. However, the trip turns out to be less relaxing than they hoped when, alarmingly, an oil tanker runs to ground on the shore as terrified holidaymakers run to safety. The whole experience shakes the family up and when they return to the house, they discover that the TV and Wifi aren’t working…
Then late that night, while their children are sleeping, two strangers turn up on their doorstep. They are George H Scott, known as GH (Mahershala Ali) and his college student daughter Ruth (Myha’la Herrold). GH explains that he is the owner of the house, that they have been to a classical concert in the city (both are in evening dress) and on their way home got caught in a blackout. Instead of trying to return to their Manhattan apartment they decided to come to their Long Island property. They ask, quite reasonably, to stay the night.
Amanda is prickly, suspicious and needs a lot of persuasion from the more laid-back Clay but eventually it is agreed they will stay. Everyone feels uneasy about the day’s events, hoping things will look brighter in the morning – but things only get worse.
The sense of impending doom escalates as planes fall out of the sky, the local wildlife starts to behave strangely, communications remain down and a terrible, piercing noise comes out of nowhere… Speculation abounds, but no definitive explanation. Chilling, discombobulating and totally compelling.