Recently hired by an international conglomerate, an American man (Owen Wilson) spirits his reluctant wife (Lake Bell) and daughters (Sterling Jerins and Claire Geare) from Texas to Southeast Asia. On their first morning abroad, the fresh start is disrupted by an explosive coup and a subsequent wave of anti-Western mob violence. With the help of a mysterious, seasoned expatriate (Pierce Brosnan), the family fights to stay a step ahead of their pursuers and escape to bordering Vietnam. No Escape is a fast, vicious, and highly involving action-suspense film. Wilson (in a relatively rare, but not unprecedented dramatic role) and Bell exude convincing parental desperation and dismay, while Brosnan is a scene-stealing delight, if a tad underutilized, as the debauched, jovial, unshaven Man with a Past Who Knows the Lay of the Land. The film zips from one close-call-in-close-quarters set piece to the next, rarely pulling a punch in regard to violence and nicely maintaining momentum and a pervasive atmosphere of claustrophobia and paranoia. The specter of potential xenophobia is present (this is a film in which a sympathetic white family is contrasted with and pit against a thronging Other, and there will be those who ignore the quality of the acting and craft on display because of this), but the film admirably, if a tad halfheartedly motions to temper this by also indicting Western corporations' acts of exploitation and resource plundering in the Third World. I for one have no significant problem with a grind-house-spirited film such as this mining stranger-in-a-strange-land unease: the spatial disorientation, the inability to easily communicate, etc. After all, it is a real and recognizable experience and, by extension, a perfectly ripe subject for pulp entertainment.

B+

Per the MPAA's site, this film, rated R for "strong violence throughout, and for language," was edited for a re-rating. I wonder what was changed.

In the final film, she is almost raped, but the men are stopped before the actual act. I guess the film went further down a Last House on the Left-type road in an earlier version.

And that would make it an NC-17.

It's easy to write it off as an insensitive, imperialist film, which it is, but there's actually a well-made movie here.

It certainly never ventures into B-grade nonsense that many of its ilk would, and as David said, performances are strong, tension omnipresent.

What holds it back is that it never gives any of the rebels any real empathy stake. We justify Wilson and Bell's killing because their family is in danger, but it would have been a lot more interesting and gray if these killers also had a shred of humanity. Although Brosnan gives it lip service, they certainly do not look like people who are afraid for their children. They also kill a lot of their own people without any qualms.

No Escape

Sensational film. A riveting and pulse-pounding story of survival among a rebel-civilian uprising in an unnamed Southeast Asian country (believed to be either Thailand or Cambodia). Hopefully with his oeuvre of forgettable genre efforts (As Above, So Below; Quarantine; Devil) firmly behind him, Dowdle makes his best film to date, and does an excellent job of crafting an isolated, paranoiac mood. In a foreign land, with no grasp of the language, no idea of the customs or why what is happening is happening, a family of four are continually in harm's way, being hunted by a death-dealing militia, just seconds or metres away from death for the duration. The realisation that standing still or hiding will lead to their deaths, with the weight of parental responsibility resting hard on their shoulders, their bodies remain rigid with fear, unable to move but they have to; this is perfectly captured in many nail-biting moments by Owen Wilson and Lake Bell. I had sweaty palms through most of the film. I was a nervous wreck by the end of it. It just does not let up. Beltrami does a masterful job of ramping up the intensity, then filtering the tension to the subsequent scenes. And Pierce Brosnan is utterly fantastic. He is charming and hilarious, and embodies that sort of sleazy expat confidence with absolute precision.

A

It does not need to be seen. Once we're all on the same page that a rape is about to take place, all we need to see is the guy touching his groin area, unzipping, and her screaming and pleading. It is effective, and seeing the actual rape might ruin the dynamic of the film.

Great review. I'd love it if it were mine.