CASSANDRA NICOLAU

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BB.   

Canada, 2004.   Red Plush Films, The Feature Film Project.   Screenplay by Cassandra Nicolaou.   Cinematography by Patrick McGowan.   Produced by Howard Frailberg.   Music by Evelyne Dati.   Production Design by Anastasia Masaro.   Costume Design by Anne Dixon.   Film Editing by Saul Pincus.   

A frustrated, overworked yuppie is battling road rage on the way to her cottage when she finds out from her spouse that, due to an emergency meeting, she is going to be travelling to the cottage alone on this particular weekend. At least that seems to be the plan until two squeegee kids take her hostage and force her to drive them up to the cottage with her. There the two youngsters tie the woman up and hold her in custody while trying to figure out what their next move is going to be in their attempt to escape the law that is presumably chasing them for a previous crime. Eventually, our heroine manages to break free of her restraints and form an emotional bond with her captors, even becoming something of a surrogate mother for them. Cassandra Nicolaou’s tense feature film has some great moments of suspense, and it’s satisfying to see how the tables turn from scene to scene, but her story runs out of steam long before it’s over and the last third is a long haul towards the delayed end. It’s a great technical achievement, with impressive photography and editing, but the characters aren’t drawn deep enough for their sudden connection midway through the film to make enough sense. Mostly I found myself just wishing she would slap the youngsters out; you never realize how much you miss the kind of behaviour you get from Ashley Judd in these movies until it’s actually taken away from you.