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Directed By
Stuart Gordon
Written By:
Stuart Gordon, John Strysik
Cast:
Mena Suvari, Stephen Rea, Russell Hornsby, Rukiya Bernard, Brian Johnson, Marguerite McNeil, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, R.D. Reid, Wayne Robson, Lionel Mark Smith, John Dunsworth, Sharlene Royer, Liam McNamara, John Dartt, Mauricio Hoyos, Wally MacKinnon, Patrick McKenna, Liam McNamara, Martin Moreno, Lorena Rincon, Suzanne Short, Bunthivy Nou
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Stuck (2008)
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Movie Review by Jarrod
June 10th, 2008
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'Stuck' is a bizarre comedy-thriller that certainly proves that the truth is indeed stranger than fiction; this film is based on a true story that apparently got a lot of media coverage, though I had not heard of it until now. However jarring and inconsistent it may be in its tonal shifts, this is a provocative and smart movie that raises questions about human morality and ethics. Mena Suvari is Brandi, a pretty young nurse's aide, who, after a night of partying with her friend Tanya (Rukiya Bernard), hits a man with her car on the way home, and instead of driving him to the hospital, she panics and decides to ignore the situation, parking in the garage and shutting the door, hoping he will be dead in the morning. He cries for help and screams in pain (a piece of metal is embedded in his leg), and he is "stuck" (hence the title) in her windshield, struggling to get free, while Brandi spends time with her boyfriend Rashid (Russell Hornsby). It is shocking to watch how Brandi responds to this disturbing situation. The man is named Tom (Stephen Rea), recently unemployed and victimized by incredibly bad luck. Rea's presence may make one think this was directed by Neil Jordan, but alas, it was not. Tom tries to dig the metal out of his leg, and everything is shown in graphic detail, the blood, the mangled flesh, the exposed leg bone that draws the attention of a dog, this is definitely not for the squeamish. Tom is determined to survive; Brandi fears that if he does survive, he will go to the police and she will wind up in jail, which is really what should happen to her. To avoid this, she considers going so far as killing Tom, and then hiding his body somewhere, with Rashid's help.
What compels Brandi to act this way? If she had dropped Tom off at the hospital, she could have avoided legal trouble entirely; she would not have been guilty of vehicular manslaughter or a hit and run. Yet, she was driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and maybe she is afraid the police would find out about that, though these charges are much less severe. Rea and Suvari are both excellent, even though Tom, as a character, is not very well-defined. Tom is not an ordinary street bum; he has only recently fallen on hard times, lost his house and his job, may only be in a transitional period, as he tries to figure out what to do with his life. There is certainly sympathy to be felt for Tom, but he simply remains relatively bland in spite of Rea's best efforts to make him interesting. This is probably Suvari's best work since American Beauty. Not a pleasant experience by any means, but memorably different.
Keep in mind that the comedy is of the dark variety, as the premise would most likely imply, and that the comic potential of the admittedly bleak and troubling story is exploited near the beginning, and at a few moments thereafter, like when Brandi confronts the girl Rashid is cheating on her with. Director Stuart Gordon does not always want us to take the movie seriously, and to lighten up a little while watching it, but when the scene shifts back to Tom and his awful dilemma, the humor dissipates, or at least it did for me. Still, it is a unique and worthwhile film, thanks in no small part to how it attempts to combine comedy with horror (well, maybe horror is not the right word, but you get my drift).
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