BREAKDOWN (69)

Directed by: Jonathan Mostow

Starring: Kurt Russell, J. T. Walsh, Kathleen Quinlan

The Pitch: A young couple travelling across America are stranded amid an alien, hostile culture when their car breaks down on a remote desert road.

Theo Sez: "Pure" is a dangerous word, calling to mind the challenging rigour of Bresson or Dreyer - not exactly what you're looking for in an action movie, which is what this is ; yet "pure" is exactly the word for its pared-down, just-the-facts style and highly controlled mise-en-scene. There are no distractions, no irrelevancies ; everything follows on from what came before, and is justified whenever necessary (hitching a ride on the villain's truck, our hero naturally leaps onto the handiest part, the undercarriage ; only when it's made clear that this makes him conspicuous to passing cars does he undertake the hazardous climb to a better hiding-place) ; this is not a film where the protagonist turns from Regular Guy into reckless action hero, or (except for a misjudged twist at the very end) loses his respect for human life. The first ten seconds tell you all you need to know - posh new car with Massachusetts plates amid harsh, barren desert landscapes - and the film divulges little more, making for tremendously convincing paranoia (it's entirely plausible that the police should also be in on the scam - and their unfailing courtesy only makes it even more plausible) ; it works in DELIVERANCE territory with echoes of THE VANISHING thrown in, but its true kin are neat cat-and-mouse thrillers like DEAD CALM and those rare straight-to-video action flicks that prove to be pleasant, if modest, surprises. The question, of course, is whether modest virtues can really make for memorable cinema - you wouldn't really want all movies (especially summer movies) to be so unassuming. Within those limits, terrific stuff.