Movie Review: Stuck

Stuck

Rating:  

Directed By: Stuart Gordon

Starring: Mena Suvari, Stephen Rea

Plot Synopsis:

Stuart Gordon creates a provocative, over-the-top experience in Stuck, a tabloid-tinged thriller inspired by true events. Brandi (Mena Suvari) is a compassionate young retirement-home caregiver in-line for a promotion. Tom (Stephen Rea) is a victim of the downsized economy, out of work and newly homeless.

Their worlds collide when Brandi, driving home from a club after too many drinks and pills, accidentally hits Tom, the impact smashing his body head-first through her car’s windshield. If discovered, this “accident” will extinguish her bright future, so instead of saving him, her plan is to let him pass and dispose of the body later. Faced with this reality, Tom knows he must escape if he wants to survive.

Review:

Reading the plot synopsis, you pretty much know what you’re going to get with Stuart Gordon‘s newest film, Stuck. A B-movie crossed with provocative indie film and dark comedy. Just when you think Stuck could be heading to snoozeville, the film picks up and grabs you all the way until the credits roll.

Stuart Gordon is the director of one of my all-time favorite movies, Re-Animator. He hasn’t directed many movies in his career: Re-Animator, From Beyond, and Dolls were are Supernaturally based, crazy FX films. He’s also dabbled (not very successfully) in Science Fiction (Robot Jox, Fortress and Space Truckers), so I was happy to see him try something different with Stuck.

This time around he based this movie on a real life situation that happened back in 2003 (Woman faced murder trial after leaving accident victim on her car). Knowing that is what makes Stuck so compelling. The idiotic decisions made by specific characters gets to be a little too out there, I was screaming at the screen, “What the heck are you thinking?!” one too many times. There’s no way a person in this situation would be so dumb. However, knowing the true story this movie is based on helps ground the film and I ended up accepting things at face value.

Stuck is the perfect midnight movie. One that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but also one that doesn’t require you to totally shut down your brain. I had a lot of fun trying to figure out how everything would resolve and that made the last 30 minutes the most fun I’ve had recently watching a Horror flick. The surreal situations and the dark comedy help make Stuck a fresh, satisfying and non-conventional Horror/Thriller.

Rated R for strong violence, disturbing content, sexuality/nudity, language and drug use.