Just a few.
Too bad.
It's a GREAT idea.
Art thief, Willem Dafoe, breaks into a luxury high-rise condominium in Manhattan. Enters the proper security code. Finds the artwork. Calls for an exfil.
And PRESTO!
Instant security alarm malfunction.
Dafoe is trapped INSIDE an apartment whose system is designed to keep people OUT. And unlike Harry Houdini, who used that little intuitive fact to his advantage, Willem cannot free himself from the bonds of this high-tech cage.
A few items on the gaffe list, which cannot be ignored.
- It's an alarm system. Once the claxon begins sounding, the local P.D. is
notified, as is the security company.
- The building is also notified.
- Dafoe has no cell phone, not even a burner.
- No one shows up to check on the condo . . . ever . . . during what turns out to
be several weeks, if not months (judging by the change of seasons).
- There is a nice editorial use of the rapidly increasing and decreasing interior
temperature of the condo, triggered by the malfunction, which causes Dafoe
to both sweat and freeze on a regular bases. However, again, someone would
be notified.
- The building's cleaning service NEVER GOES INSIDE THE APARTMENT.
The movie is almost saved by the talented Mister Dafoe. His face now
resembling a road map of a rock-climbing tour of the Eiger, this septuagenarian performer dominates the screen as he rigs a Rube Goldberg-ian Jacob's Ladder to a skylight, which is the thief's last hope.
The film is an acting workshop. In between attempts to breach the skylight, which will lead the thief to, well, who knows, Dafoe redecorates the interior walls with a series of art pieces sketched in charcoal and plastered with various broken items from his attempts to escape.
For more than 100 minutes, Dafoe holds our interest despite the obvious flaw of the lack of an appearance by the authorities thirty minutes into the thief's incarceration.
It's a rental on Prime.
Wait for the freebie, and have a reserve of 100 minutes to suspend disbelief.
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