RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR

US, 2006, 96 minutes, Colour.
Mary Mc Cormack, Rory Cochrane, Tony Perez, Scotty Noyd Jnr.
Directed by Chris Gorak.

A small-budget disaster film that indicates a what-might-be terror scenario in an American city.

Everyone wakes up to an ordinary day in LA. Our focus is on a couple (Mary Mc Cormack and Rory Cochrane). After breakfast, she goes to work, he stays at home. Suddenly and certainly unexpectedly, three bombs go off, two in downtown LA and one at LAX. What happens?

The film plays something like a documented cinema verite of what it might actually be like. It also plays like a story out of Twilight Zone.

The bewilderment is something that strikes us. Not only is the husband uncertain what is happening but he has to control his panic to try to work out what is best to do. In this day and age, fortunately some of the lines of communication are open. Radio continually sounds in the background (the film not showing anything of what is happening in the stricken areas), TV commentators are able to keep people somewhat up-to-date but news is geared to preventing panic. Phone lines are open but clogged. Hospitals and rescue centres are at bursting point.

Ultimately, residents are advised to seal their houses to prevent what are announced as toxic fumes from getting into homes. A local gardener joins the husband and together they wait. Is the wife dead? What will happen if she arrives home and cannot be let into the house. What are the physical effects? The psychological effects? What of the police, army reserves? How long will it take to get help?

These and other questions are all answered. The desaturated colour reminds us of the grim consequences of such terrorism in an American city. The fadeouts suggest the agonising passing of time. The darkness, especially at the end is stifling and claustrophobic.

A pity that the screenplay is too often punctuated with banal (and realistic to that extent) profanity, four letter desperation and OK, OK, OK substituting for language that might be less realistic but more dramatically real and powerful.

Two questions: does this kind of film aggravate US paranoia concerning the war against terror? Will audiences want to put themselves through this cinema ordeal of a terror scenario, no matter how real?

1.The impact of the film? For American audiences? Los Angeles audiences? Worldwide? The possibility of this kind of terrorist attack? The impact, authorities having to cope? Families and individuals?

2.The Los Angeles setting, the suburb, the homes and the streets, gas stations, shops? The skyline? The impact of the explosions, the smoke over the skyline? The falling ash? The musical score?

3.The film relying on radio and television broadcasts to give information about the disaster, the consequences, people’s reactions? The film not showing much visually? Confining itself to the street and the suburbs? The claustrophobic impact? Experiencing the uncertainty of those involved? Panic, desperation?

4.The establishing of the ordinary day, people waking up, the media? Lexie and Brad, their life together, intimacy? Breakfast? Lexie going to work, Brad, out of work, staying at home? A normal day?

5.The impact of the explosions, in downtown Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, at the airport? The range of influence, the explosions and the destruction? Injuries and deaths? The toxic ash?

6.Brad, his concern about Lexie, the phone calls, going out in the car, being warned to go back home, going to the shop, people getting goods, stocking up, the touch of looting? His buying the material to seal up the house? His attempts to get further, his being turned back? His seeing Timmy in the street and urging him to go home? The irony of Timmy coming back later?

7.Phone calls, difficulties of getting through, messages on Lexie’s mobile? Lexie’s mother and her phone call, his not telling her the truth, hanging up? the impossibility of getting through because of clogged lines?

8.Alvaro, his being the gardener in the neighbouring home, asking to come in, Brad’s negative reaction, panic? Alvaro’s explanations? The decision to seal up the house, Alvaro helping? The thoroughness and the hard work of sealing every crack? The irony of the consequences later for the toxins being able to germinate in the house? Alvaro and his presence, Brad’s mixed feelings, Alvaro wanting him to answer the phone, not wanting to interfere? Alvaro not able to contact his wife, his final decision to walk out and go home?

9.The film’s focus on Brad, his panic, bewilderment, not knowing what to do? The emotional impact? Taking it out on Alvaro? Lexie’s sudden return, her desperation, wanting to get into the house? The story of her being in the car, the explosions? Her walking back, her injuries? Toxic, realising that she would die?

10.Lexie, outside, her calming down, knowing that she couldn’t come into the house? The ways of communicating with Brad, talking through the window, staying outside? Timmy’s arrival? Her wanting him to have a shower, talking with him, Brad sealing up the bedroom and her being able to go in, the shower? Her taking Timmy and helping him at the hospital, her not being able to get any help, no medicine? Her character, her phone calls to her mother, her mother and her interference, the sad talk with her brother? The other brother, Rick, and his wanting her to go, her going with him, Rick’s death?

11.The growing pressure on Brad, the separation of the two, days and nights passing? The reflection on their marriage, on their life, apologies?

12.The services coming around, in the garden, sinister, masked, tortures? Brad having seen the man shot getting out of his car previously? Suspicions, wanting them to go out of the house, their putting up the red sign, Lexie taking it down? The final arrival, the examination of the house, dragging Lexie away? The irony of her going to be safe, getting the medicine? Brad trapped in the house, their boarding up the house completely, his being in the darkness, pumping the gas into the house? His being left to die?

13.How accurate the portrait of young adults coping with the situation, not coping? Their personalities, the limits of what they could do? The mundane dialogue? The desperate dialogue? Audience sympathies, with Brad leaving Lexie outside, her coming to terms with this? Her being taken off? Brad and his survival – and the irony that he was to die?

14.A film like this making American audiences more paranoid about the war against terror? The plausibility and possibility of this kind of disaster in an American city? The action of the president, the guard and the reserves, local authorities? Hospitals overcrowded? Analysing the toxins, the limits of medicine available? The semi-documentary style of the film?