 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: The Surprise Visit • Year: 2022 • Country: USA • Director: Nick Lyon • Main cast: Jacqi Vene, Serah Henesey, Rob Riordan, Eric Roberts, Johnny Santiago, Tricia Hawn • Runtime: 86 minutes • Production company: Hoodoo Productions • TRAILER
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The Surprise Visit (2022) is based on a true story, and it is described by Nick Lyon, the director of the film, as “an American tragedy”. That is a very accurate description since it is for sure a tragedy, and also one of those things that can only happen in a so inequitable first-world country like America. I live in Europe, but, in my younger years, I traveled a lot in the USA, especially the states of Missouri and Tennessee, where I managed to make a dear group of friends. People who mostly came from middle-class families, but also some others coming from truly dysfunctional environments, young people with no jobs or any will or the chance to have any, no money for food or gas but always with a stash of drugs to use, and who for some reason think that having a baby would be the solution to all their problems. Without the intention of them changing a bit their habits or their social and professional situation, of course. So when at the beginning of The Surprise Visit (2022) the characters of Annabelle and Casey are introduced I knew those were real pictures of a notorious percentage of the population living in the most deprived areas of the country. The family situations, the constant drug use, the fact of being permanently broke, the trailer park residence, and the thinking that delinquency can be a fast, easy, and successful way to make a few bucks and start over in a fantastic world of success, bliss, and happy family environment. Obviously, that never happens.
This description, plus the movie plot, gives you an idea of what The Surprise Visit (2022) is. The two young junkie parents-to-be decide to rob the house of a wealthy woman knowing that she is gone; to pick up some jewels that she won’t even notice missing. But nothing goes as expected. And then the tragedy starts. Well, actually the tragedy had already started from the very first moment you see on the screen the protagonist couple.
The Surprise Visit (2022) is good at the depiction of the characters, but it is a little weak when it comes to taking us through the actions happening on that fateful night. At times the action feels like it’s having a hard time keeping the tension and the watch can become a little repetitive. The story has not enough elements to build over an hour of heist-gone-wrong with a so limited group of characters, but that is minor damage to the global of the film.
The chosen location, that luxurious manor and the forest surrounding it, play an important role in the final execution of the film, a movie that from the very first moment we know there is no way it can end well. The actors do a good job giving each one of the characters its own personality, and how they all are willing to survive in their own way.
To summarize, The Surprise Visit (2022) is a traditional home robbery-going-wrong type of film. But it is also a quite well done one where everything works fine for the final purpose. An American tragedy, very American and very tragic indeed, where the two protagonists are doomed from the very beginning, and the only enigma is to see how deep into shit they go. Because bad decisions taken in desperate situations call trouble, and trouble calls even bigger trouble. And the spiral grows.
RATE: 6/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt13362890
