11:14
US, 2003, 85 minutes, Colour.
Richard Thomas, Patrick Swayze, Barbara Hershey, Rachel Leigh Cook, Colin Hanks, Ben Foster, Stark Sands, Shawn Hatosey, Hilary Swank.
Directed by Greg Marckx.
This is a fine little film, little in the sense that it runs for only 80 minutes and that it confines itself to about 30 minutes of real time, confines itself to a small group of characters in a country town. But, it is worth seeing.
The screenplay is something of a jigsaw. We see various pieces which, only at the end, make a unified picture. It begins with a drunken driver flirting on his phone, hitting a deer which turns out to be a dead man. A passer-by offers to help and call the police. The police, who have some people in custody in the car, arrive and pursue the driver. He is confronted by the passer-by who has just heard that her daughter has been run over and assumes that he is the killer.
There are several more characters involved in this hit-run which is not what it looks like: the dead girl and her boyfriend, her father, a store assistant and her friend and a group of drinking yobbos in a van.
The crunch time is 11:14 and we are taken back continually to just before 11.00 pm and what each of the characters is doing and why they should all ultimately be connected.
The screenplay is by first-time director Greg Marcks who weaves an intricate story with some intelligence and astuteness. And he has a name cast: Henry Thomas is the driver, Barbara Hershey and Patrick Swayze are the parents of the dead girl, Rachel Leigh Cook. Hilary Swank is the store assistant and Shawn Hatosey her friend. Colin Hanks leads the group in the van.
A satisfying brief film that achieves what it set out to do – anticipating the Oscar-winning Crash.
1.The impact of the film? Its brevity? Precise?
2.The various stories? The interconnections? The time period of twenty minutes?
3.The structure of the film: the various stories, the links, the final story and bringing the interconnections to complete fulfilment?
4.Audience response, interest, puzzle, making the connections, finally satisfied?
5.The night photography, the focused place, the town, the streets, the cemetery, the homes? The underpass? The musical score?
6.The driver, drunk, talking on his mobile phone, the accident, the warning about deer? The underpass? The discovery that it was a body? His panic, hiding from the passing car? Putting the body in the boot? The police officer? The interactions, his test for sobriety, the alphabet backwards? The officer and his seeing the blood on the car? His thinking it was the deer? The driver and his excuses? Running away, the pursuit? Encountering Cherie’s mother? Her helping? Offering to get the police? Her finding him later, blaming him for her daughter’s death? The final irony at the end, audience then understanding that he was on the phone with Cherie, the plan to get the money, to run away together?
7.The mother’s story, driving, seeing the accident, offering to help? Arriving home, her relationship with Frank, talking about the day? The information about her daughter’s death, hurrying back, confronting the driver? Audience linking her with Cherie and her wilfulness and being spoilt?
8.Frank, at home, his relationship with his daughter, watching the television, urging some discipline on her? Their clash, her going out? His antagonism towards Aaron and Aaron arriving? His reaction to her coming back so soon, going out, finding Aaron’s body? Deciding to hide it, putting it on the road, to be a hit-run? His later encounter with the three in the truck?
9.The three in the truck, drinking, picking up the other passenger? Their throwing stuff out the window – and later seeing it hitting Frank’s car? The pissing out the car? The driver and his reactions? Their arguing? Having seen them go to the store, getting the doughnuts and the drink? The crash into Cherie, the accident with his penis? Their arguing between themselves about blame? The officer encountering them, the police car with Duffy and the clerk in it already?
10.Duffy, his story, relationship with Cherie, her being pregnant, wanting money for the abortion, putting pressure on his friend at the store, her wanting to keep her job, her resistance? The decision to take the money, her getting some help with the money? Cherie’s arrival, Duffy with his gun, the girl acting out with it, accidentally going off? The police coming? Duffy and his panic, his getting into the car, finding Cherie by the roadside, saying her car had broken down? Her being hit? His grief?
11.Cherie and her story, wilfulness, her relationship with Duffy, later discovering that she had pretended she was pregnant to get money from him? Aaron and the encounter with him in the cemetery, wanting to get money from him as well? The sex, the gravestone and its killing Aaron? Her leaving her car keys, running away, interaction with her father, taking his car? Her plan to blame Duffy, going to the store, talking with him, the shot? Her phoning the police? Her getting the bowl out of his car to blame him for Aaron’s death? Her car breaking down, her following Duffy, crossing the road with her mobile phone, her being killed? The irony that she had been talking to the initial driver?
12.A pessimistic view of human nature? People to blame, responsibility?
13.An interesting jigsaw puzzle of a film, characterisations, themes, interconnections?
