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Inescapable Tension

The cold open for "No Escape" features the leader of a country being assassinated after making a deal with an American water company. Surrounding officers and security personnel are also found in pools of blood, setting the dark tone of "No Escape".

There is an easy opportunity to tear "No Escape" apart and dissect it for its ugly commentary and relentlessly dour tone. But the film succeeds on its most basic intentions, which is to provide some edge-of-your-seat entertainment for audiences. We are thrust in the middle of the film's action, which can be equal doses of thrilling and nauseating. This really isn't a film for the faint-of-heart.

John Erick Dowdle ("As Above, So Below", "Quarantine") directs and co-wrote "No Escape" with his brother, Drew Dowdle, and it's probably the director's most competent and engaging film yet. "As Above, So Below" was a mostly unseen film from August of last year and a huge, boring game of wait-and-see. Not without its flaws - some more glaring than others - "No Escape" offers much more consistent thrills than any of the Dowdle Brothers' previous efforts.

The story is built within a familiar paradigm: finding a family in a foreign land. Jack Dwyer (Owen Wilson) is relocated to another country for his job. He is forced to uproot his wife, Annie (Lake Bell) and their two daughters, Lucy (Sterling Jerins) and Beeze (Claire Geare). On the flight over, they meet the charismatic Hammond (Pierce Brosnan, in a fun, quirky supporting turn). When they arrive at the new country, Hammond gets them set up with a ride to their hotel. He has a habit of being in the right place at the right time.

Quickly, things begin to take a bad turn for Jack and his family. Phones and televisions don't work and Jack has no way of getting in touch with his company. If you think that's bad (I mean, the phones and television don't work!), outside an uprising is forming and Americans are being slaughtered without second thought. Without any working forms of communication, Jack must get his family out of danger without being caught and killed.

Following Jack, Annie and their children on the run to literally save their lives is as tense as anything seen so far in this Summer's batch of movies. The Dowdles' earn their R-rating throughout this movie with graphic violence: every way Jack and his family turns, someone is being shot, stabbed or beaten. "No Escape" will effectively grab you and not let you go for scenes at a time. With that kind of intensity, some will undoubtedly find this movie very off-putting.

Wilson and Bell are surprising choices for such a serious film but effectively play intensely protective parents. Both have to be quick on their feet and ready to do anything to make sure their daughters stay safe and both actors are convincing in their roles.

A moderate success, "No Escape" works hard to keep viewers engaged and the stakes high, even when the film's outcome is preordained. "No Escape" is tense and sometimes suffocating but will appeal to a thrill-seeking audience.