Over the last several years we've been treated to all sorts of "Ack, I'm stuck!" thrillers, and they come in all shapes and sizes: Colin Farrell stuck in a phone booth; a couple of scuba divers stuck in shark-infested waters; a clueless everyman stuck in a coffin; three goofballs stuck on a ski lift, two goofballs stuck in a canyon, one goofball with his hand stuck beneath a massive boulder -- and one poor guy who spends a few days stuck inside a windshield! Most of these flicks are surprisingly solid, and they generally find novel ways to position their respective "Ack, I'm stuck!" gimmicks.
And then there's the new entry, Wrecked, which offers us Oscar-winner Adrien Brody totally stuck inside a wrecked car ... until he wriggles out. Then he's stuck writhing across the forest floor, arguing with imagined cohorts, growling at various woodland creatures, and slowly (ever so freaking slowly) figuring out how he got totally stuck in that smashed-up automobile in the first place. As you could probably ascertain from the aforementioned plot synopsis, not much happens in Wrecked, and what does happens does so ... s l o w l y.
Debut feature from director Michael Greenspan and writer Christopher Dodd, Wrecked simply drops us into a stranger's unpleasant situation, and then does very little that might make us care about the poor schlub with his leg nastily wedged beneath the dashboard. Aside from the simple appeal of "oh, that's sort of a shame," there's little to no investment in the lead character, which means that we're stuck watching a complete stranger moan, writhe, and hallucinate for a good 40 minutes. And once the man extricates himself from the car, things get only slightly more lively. The always-cool Brody (who seems to have a recent addiction to starring in weird genre films, and good for him!) does what he can with the scant material, but the flick goes from dreary to tiresome once the backstory starts falling into place.
Well-shot and intermittently effective, Wrecked seems a lot like a cool short that got stretched into feature length for no good reason besides distribution options. Wrecked certainly isn't a terrible entry into the "Ack, I'm stuck!" sub-sub-genre, but it hits the screen with a noted lack of energy, excitement or overall point. If, on the other hand, the idea of watching Adrien Brody wiggle and whine his way through a forest sounds thrilling, then Wrecked may be your new favorite film.
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