‘Don’t Let Go’ answers the call
Don’t Let Go Rated: R for violence, bloody images, and language. Running time: 107 minutes. 66 1⁄2 out of 4
“Don’t Let Go” is a supernatural psychological thriller cop drama, and that’s just the first five genres that come to mind.
The plot line includes a protagonist existing in a timeline before she was murdered, placing cell phone calls to a detective searching for her killer a few days later. They never text or send photos, though. Apparently, that isn’t covered in their timewarp data plan.
And yet through all of the complexities in the plot, the new film by Jacob Aaron Estes succeeds because of the simplest things — beginning with the lead performances of David Oyelowo (“Selma” and Storm Reid (“A Wrinkle in Time”). It’s a good sign for the intelligence of your science fiction movie when it’s easy to imagine the story working as a stage play with just two actors.
Oyelowo is Jack, a hardened Los Angeles detective with a soft spot for his teen niece Ashley (Reid). They are both troubled — Jack with his work and Ashley with her home life — but can easily express love to each other.
A savage crime apparently linked to Jack’s excon brother devastates his life, until Jack starts receiving mysterious calls from Ashley’s phone. He approaches these developments like a detective, until he can’t anymore.
We won’t give any major spoilers, although it wouldn’t be a huge problem if we did. The plot turns run from predictable to “so nakedly obvious, even people who didn’t know Bruce Willis’ ‘The Sixth Sense’ character was dead will figure it out.”
The time travel logic is barely explored. Like the similarly satisfying Dennis Quaid drama “Freqeuncy” (2000), special effects are not paramount. Estes has little bother to explain the unexplainable. Is God doing this? Space aliens? A rip in the space/time continuum caused by aurora borealis? Create your own backstory in your head, because “Don’t Let Go” doesn’t go there.
What Estes does instead is use the device to heighten the drama. Oyelowo, so wonderful as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in “Selma,” is in nearly every scene, tested by realworld problems that won’t bend to his supernatural discoveries. (Note to anyone who discovers their phone can receive calls from dead people: Carry an extra charger.) Oyelowo and Reid have excellent chemistry, as they learn blind faith in each other might be the only way they both survive.
The strong supporting cast includes Alfred Molina as a police captain, Mykelti Williamson as Jack’s partner and Brian Tyree Henry (Paper Boi in “Atlanta”) as Jack’s brother.
Estes films the action competently, but always as a distant second to the drama. There are shootouts and chases, but they’re used as a means to test the characters. Cinematographer Sharone Meir is a strong collaborator, capturing southwest Los Angeles in hazy, settingsun colors that match the mood of the protagonists.
By the end, the otherworldly distractions are reduced, distilling the movie to its strengths: writing and performance. It seems a little jerkish to complain about Jack and Ashley’s poor 21st century phone skills. They’ve both been through so much together, and by the end it all seems so real.