 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Detour • Year: 2016 • Country: UK/South Africa • Director: Christopher Smith • Main cast:Tye Sheridan, Emory Cohen, Bel Powley • Runtime: 90 minutes • Production company: Freedom Media, Infinite Frameworks Studios • TRAILER |
Detour (2016) is a thriller written and directed by Christopher Smith, who little by little is building his way up to the top of recognised directors of suspense movies. He first catched the public’s attention with Creep (2004), starring Franka Potente in a creepy night at the London Underground; then with Triangle (2009) –see our review HERE-, with Melissa George trapped in dark waters, already adding a remarkable time plot to the thriller; then came Black Death (2010), which although may not be showing anything new, has a good direction (with Eddie Redmayne and Sean Bean) and a good medieval setting; and now his last thriller, which he claimed to be “my best movie so far” when presenting it at the 49th Sitges Film Festival, while he apologised on behalf of the UK’s decision of leaving Europe (disregarding problems as if they had nothing to do with them), and reminding us not all British people are the same, and that “you are not alone”. Well, thank you Christopher, it was an encouraging speech which I’m pretty sure everybody in Sitges appreciated.
With those words we were introduced to a remarkably tricky thriller leaded by a trio formed by Tye Sheridan (Mud (2012), The Tree of Life (2011)), Emory Cohen (Brooklyn (2015)), and Bel Powley (The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)), all young -also in their careers- but yet promising. The departure point: a young law student is presented with the opportunity of killing his step-father and thereby taking revenge of his dying mother. Do you remember those child books that allowed you to decide among different outcomes in the story, like “if you decide to go to the party, go to page nº X; if on the contrary you prefer to stay at home, go to page nº Y”? Because this movie reminds me of those readings, allowing the spectator to contemplate the choices the characters are faced with, and illustrating how every decision affects their lives.
“Life’s about the choices you make”, I couldn’t agree more, and Christopher Smith manages to build a movie with a complicated variable like time, playing with action-reaction, playing with the spectator, taking some licences in the storytelling, but always keeping the story alive, making turns, and surprising us until the end. An interesting reflection on the the humans’ ability to decide and the relativity of viewpoints, explained in a way that we are not used to seeing. Definitely inspiring, it left me thinking “Why not?” and with a good taste in the mouth.
RATE: 7/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4372390
