The idea of abduction is terrifying. It's all too real of a threat, and very sadly, the vast majority of our worst nightmares can become reality. This movie has a girl knocked out and stuffed in a trunk, and her desperate attempt to get out with the help of a 911 operator. It involves very believable techniques to getting noticed, as well as some actually pretty scary situations and a pretty terrifying perp. The girl is realistically taken, as well. In other words, this movie is really working to exploit the already instilled fears of moviegoers.
As far as performances go, we have some great moments with both our leading ladies. Halle Berry plays a cold, emotionless operator sympathetic toward two 911 calls involving girls being attacked. She's actually quite good at displaying an attempted coldness, without it being too outwardly obvious. Abigail Breslin displays just the right amount of terror to be believably scared, not so much that it's obnoxious or annoying. And you are cheering for her. You definitely want her to succeed in her escape - that's to say, she's not so annoying you just wanna see her knocked off already.
Although it's a bit loud, the movie is definitely tense. Again, techniques in the film are not at all far fetched, at least not at first. It's all rooted in possible actions and results. It leaves you thinking about what you could do in that situation, and the villain reacts believably to everything thrown at him. It works, really well. And then...
The third act. An abomination. Suddenly, all believability is thrown out the window. It became ridiculous, forced, contrived, dumb, and then ended INCREDIBLY mean spirited. It was actually morally questionable. And that's saying something, considering the nature of the villain. I sat in my seat, so appalled by the ending, that I didn't want to believe that it was really over. It was despicably bad. I was ready to give this movie a 3.5, maybe even a 4. But no. The ending was so bad, I think the score I'm giving it represents how bad it actually was.
RANK - 1.5/5
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