Wrecked Directed by: Michael Greenspan Starring: Adrien Brody, Caroline Dharvernas Rating: R Release Date: (TBD 2011)
TRAILER SCORE: 8/10
MY THOUGHTS: Okay, so I guess I like movies about charismatic men trapped in hellish situations. I couldn't get enough of Ryan Reynolds stuffed in that coffin and now I'm being offered the chance to watch Adrien Brody (Ah, Adrien, How I Love Thee...Despite Splice) all bruised and swollen at the bottom of a ravine? Yay! Maybe after this we can make Well with Johnny Depp trapped at the bottom of an abandoned well and Collapsed Mineshaft with Limited Air Supply starring Zac Efron, and I'd be happy as a pig in my own filth! Apparently the formula of "actor I have a crush on gets into potentially fatal, claustrophobic situation" is my newest fave.
And I've always loved the idea of taking an essentially "evil" character and giving them amnesia. If you can't remember that you're evil, would you still be evil? Is it possible that you would default to sweet, helpless infant mode, because you didn't know any better? If there wasn't that old familiar nasty voice in your head saying, "Psst! Be an A**hole!" would you revert to a kinder, gentler you?
Wrecked hints at the man's criminal past, though with a dash of potential head trauma (is any of it real?), but now he's been literally dropped a hundred feet onto square zero. A story of survival and redemption and horrible discomfort and yucky eye injuries! Bring on the anxiety, people!
My one concern is the heavy use of flashbacks. It's very hard to get away with using a flashback; only movies like Inception can use flashbacks artistically and without invoking any critical hostility. Apparently, you can't have a protagonist who is an amnesiac without the white, hazy flashback glimpses of the day before/year before/wedding anniversary/etc., but it would definitely be more interesting without it. No clues. Just Adrien Brody, scared out of his mind, all beaten up, wandering around in the woods without a single idea of who he might be or where the heck he is. Then it would be like an agoraphobics version of Buried, except meaner.
Again, it does give you an idea of what's going on in my psyche.