10 Cloverfield Lane-2016
Director-Dan Trachtenberg
Starring-Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman
Scott’s Review #643
Reviewed May 11, 2017
Grade: B+
10 Cloverfield Lane is a 2016 psychological thriller that is billed as somewhat of a successor to the 2008 hit, Cloverfield, though I fail to see the apparent correlation between the films.
Furthermore, the two stories seemingly have little or nothing to do with one another.
Despite these pesky details, 10 Cloverfield Lane is a very good, edge of your seat type film that is unpredictable as well as thought-provoking.
It is a film worthy of discussion by the time the credits roll- a very good quality for a film to have.
Without any dialogue during the opening sequence (a clever move), we meet Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a twenty-something woman presumably on the outs with her boyfriend, who we never see.
Alone, she flees their residence and drives into the night to parts unknown. The couple is metropolitan, living in central New Orleans. Now in the middle of Louisiana, and hearing radio reports of strange blackouts, Michelle is soon involved in a terrible car accident. When she awakens, she finds herself chained to a bed inside a small bunker inhabited by two men, Howard (John Goodman), and Emmitt (John Gallagher, Jr.).
They insist that the outside world is no longer and all human beings are dead as a result of a catastrophic attack. Michelle, initially skeptical, slowly uncovers various clues that leave her baffled as to what the truth is.
10 Cloverfield Lane may very well be John Goodman’s best film performance.
He plays Howard with gusto and mystery and the audience is largely left baffled whether or not to trust this man. Is he a vicious abductor, creating a make-believe world to keep Michelle hostage-or is he telling the truth? He plays the character as both creepy and surly, but with a tinge of vulnerability and sadness.
I certainly was both fascinated and confused by Howard and could not determine his true motivations.
Winstead also deserves credit for portraying a female character that is strong yet sympathetic and she is never reduced to playing a victim, a testament to the actress’s ability.
Over the years Winstead has appeared in several duds (Black Christmas and The Thing) so it is nice to see her in a film worthy of her talents.
Michelle is smart and determined to deduce her true surroundings and formulate a clever escape- though in a nice twist by filmmakers, does she want to leave the safety of her bunker after all?
In this way producer, J.J. Abrams weaves a story layered with twists and turns, which does wonders to keep the tension and the interest at a high level throughout the film. The major question that reoccurs is “what on earth lies outside of the bunker?”
I enjoy how this film is not the typical, cookie-cutter type fare where we root for the female victim to escape the clutches of a male maniac- the film is much deeper and complex than that.
Most enjoyable is how events slowly unfold and we, the audience, begin to question thoughts we have harbored throughout the run of the film.
A perfect example of this comes in the final chapter when events take off in an entirely different direction than the rest of the film. Feeling a bit suffocated inside the bunker, what a relief to finally have some action occur outside of this location and into the fresh air.
But what lurks in this new setting?
One small oddity is how the film chooses to include famous actor Bradley Cooper’s voice as Michelle’s boyfriend Ben, heard via telephone only. This went unnoticed by me until the credits rolled and seems like a silly and unnecessary inclusion.
Also, we never know what the turmoil is between Michelle and Ben- is their domestic trouble simply a plot-driven antic, or is there further meaning?
In a nutshell, 10 Cloverfield Lane is a film best watched when knowing not the first thing about the plot or circumstances surrounding events.
The film was so enjoyable to me because I did not know the twist, the conclusion, or even who starred in the film. In this way, the film kept all of the elements of surprise away from me and I found the film all the more enjoyable because of this.