It doesn't happen often, but for some reason Owen Wilson makes for
a believable action hero. It hasn't really been seen from him since 2001's Behind Enemy Lines, which
arrived at an awkward time in the comedy actor's career, but people liked it
and the film was a surprising hit. So finding him in the thick of a bloody and
violent flick like No Escape isn't as jarring as one might think.
And as it turns out, the film is far better than one might think, striking a
nice balance between your typical vacation horror and the thrilling disaster
drama, The Impossible.
Wilson stars as Jack Dwyer, an American flying off to Thailand
with his wife Annie (Lake Bell) and two daughters, Lucy (Sterling Jerins)
and Beeze (Claire Geare), to take a job as an engineer for a company working on
the country's water system. In only a few minutes we're let in on who the
Dwyers are, and the answer is they're pretty darned wholesome all around, but
there's also some unresolved tension over the big move. The characters are
sketched out just enough to give us an impression, but obviously a film like
this isn't going to delve too deep. The same goes for Hammond (Pierce Brosnan),
a Westerner of mysterious motivations and an odd sense of humor. He knows the
landscape a little too well and always seems to be around, drink in hand and
women on his mind. 
Little do the Dwyers know they're flying in-country at the worst
possible time. Even before we meet the Dwyers (which sounds like it should be
the title for a Wilson comedy, Meet the Dwyers), we're witness to violent,
blood-spurting overthrow of the current regime, with the country's President massacred
in his own palace. It's just the opening salvo of a revolution that finds
protesters massacring everyone they find, but especially Westerners. The
killers stampede through the streets, hacking up innocents until they find
their way to the Dwyers' hotel, sending the family on a mad dash through the
city to save themselves.
Directed by John Erick Dowdle and co-written with his brother
Drew, the two bring much of the same claustrophobic intensity they brought to
their breakout horror, Quarantine.
This is the first time since that they've been able to match that level of
paranoia and fear, as the Dwyers are faced with a situation in which they are
being persecuted at every turn, simply for being Americans. While the major set
pieces are effective, it's the smaller indignities they face that have the most
impact. Starvation begins to settle in, and even simple things as being able to
use the restroom become a dangerous ordeal. And dragging along a couple
of kids, with all of their needs and frequent whining fits, only makes their
predicament more perilous. It almost makes you worry less about them as Jack
hurls them over a rooftop to another, but Dowdle has built up such sympathy for
the Dwyers that we can't help but fear for their safety. That said, Dowdle's
use of slow-motion to ramp up the dramatic tension is excessive, mainly because
he doesn't need to do it. It's already disturbing enough watching this simple
blue collar family trapped in the middle of such a brutal war, and trying to
shield their children from the death all around them.
Nobody will be surprised to learn that Brosnan's character turns
out to be a highly skilled British agent, and he's deployed resourcefully
rather than taking over the film entirely. It's actually a pretty lean role for
him, but one thing Brosnan is great at is playing off his 007 past to create
the outline of a character, allowing us to fill in the blanks. He's actually
quite good here, especially as Hammond begins to reveal who the real bad guys
are in this situation. He picks up the action slack from Wilson, whose
character is portrayed as capable....to a point. That's another smart aspect of
the screenplay in that it doesn't try to turn Jack into Die Hard's John McClane. He's
resourceful, yes, but he needs to get bailed out more than once, either by
Hammond or by his wife, or even by his kids. That said, there does come a point
when the Dwyers face odds so long that it becomes a little tough to swallow,
culminating in a finale that's too silly to maintain the film's visceral
sensation. Still, No
Escape is thrilling,
seat-of-your-pants entertainment that ends the summer blockbuster season on a
much higher note than expected.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
