Wrecked (2010)

Very disappointing...

Don't listen to the negative reviews

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Blistering performances.

This is going to be a very short review because, frankly, there isn't much to say about Wrecked. The first 20 to 30 minutes of the film consists of Adrien Brody trapped in a wrecked car deep in the forest… For the remaining 65 minutes, we get to see Brody crawling around the forest / wilderness. Throw in a hallucination here and a mountain lion there, and that's the whole film. Not too entertaining, even with the few appearances of the mountain lion – and that says a lot about the approach director Michael Greenspan took with the film. Despite Adrien being a great actor and doing his absolute best with the script, the film never really delivers on the suspense or the thrills. It's a one-man show that goes absolutely nowhere, and that's not Brody's fault. Greenspan never picks up the pace of the film; he uses flashbacks and hallucinations ineffectively; and tries to build suspense around a story-line that just doesn't have any. If you want to see a great survival film with few characters that gets it right, watch Frozen, 127 Hours with James Franco, or the classic Cast Away with Tom Hanks.

I read a few of the reviews on here about this movie, and they gave the impression that this movie left too many unanswered questions and the ending was not satisfying. I don't know what questions these reviews were referring to, but for me the ending was pretty much self explanatory.The acting was brilliant, the direction, the location and scenes were all done really well. The story was adequately thought provoking too.To sum it up, the movie felt like an experience, not just a visual entertainment. 7 out of 10 for me!Having said that it's not a movie for everyone, if you like movies where you can feel the character's environment then you'll like this, but if you prefer lots of dialogues, lots of people and lots of action then you probably wanna watch something else.

This film proves why there is Danny Boyle, and then there's the rest.In "127 Hours," this smart director instinctively knew how to engage an audience, thrill them, captivate them, and make them sympathetic to the main character without any other characters or story points to speak of.The fact that he pulled this off is something of a miracle.But he did so by realizing, among other things, that holding for 30 seconds or more on a static closeup of his lead actor while absolutely NOTHING happened was not the answer.In fact, he knew it would be the death of his film. Whoever directed (and edited) "Wrecked" doesn't quite understand this concept. These well-meaning amateurs can't quite wrap their minds around the idea that what's essentially a boring story doesn't have to be told in a boring, ultra-realistic way (despite how many reality TV shows have become successful).That's why "127 Hours" was nominated for multiple Oscars... and who's even ever heard of "Wrecked"?? It was never even released -- despite having a major star in the lead role.Maybe, with a good editor, this failed experiment in non-storytelling might have worked as a short film. Even with a terrible director who doesn't understand filmmaking, there are ways to turn the story of a car crash survivor into an entertaining 10-minute short. Features on the other hand generally succeed using a three-act structure and story revelations.At least this wrecked attempt can serve as a lesson to future filmmakers: when portraying a character going through misery, don't make the audience suffer as well! People don't generally turn over their hard-earned cash so they can have a terrible time at the movies.

I love landscapes like the one in which this movie is set. I could climb for days around the hilly hardwoods groves and fern beds and decaying leaf mats and never miss civilization or my precious electronics. Adrian Brody, as an amnesic and badly injured accident victim who wakes up in a mangled car in just such a landscape, has no reason at all to enjoy it. In fact, he barely notices it, as he struggles to save his own life and gradually pieces together the truth of his situation. He remembers, in flashes and glimpses, and he also hallucinates. None of this is especially involving, and the flashbacks and dreams come so far apart that I was never able to sustain much curiosity about it. So much footage is devoted to woodland scenes, in fact, that the woods eventually take over the movie. Whether this was what the director intended or not is beside the point. It got to the point where even the briefest plot interludes became vaguely annoying, almost offensive. The wilderness is the hero, and it doesn't care about Adrian Brody and his broken leg and his broken memory. The wilderness is perfectly represented by the mountain lion that keeps showing up to drag off the bodies of the other accident victims for dinner. All we are is meat.