Don't Move Is the Number 2 Movie on Netflix, but Is It Really That Good?
It's a controversial experiment that deserves the attention of thriller fans.
Directors Brian Netto and Adam Schindler took the script by TJ Cimfel and David White and, with the support of producer Sam Raimi, decided to make a thriller about survival, reminiscent of the good old Saw in its lessons.
The basic idea is simple: to understand something about life, you have to find yourself on the brink of death.
What Is Don't Move About?
Iris drives to a hiking trail to climb the mountain where her son once fell. As she stands resigned at the edge of the cliff, a friendly man named Richard approaches her.
He tells her his own tragic story of a car accident, ending the monologue with an inspiring phrase. Iris decides to postpone her suicide, and together they go down to the cars, where the pleasant-looking man injects the woman with a serum. Iris has 20 minutes to escape and hide before her body is completely paralyzed for an hour.
The Plot Is Constantly Moving Forward
The protagonist's loss of control over her body limits the narrative dynamic, but fortunately the world around Iris does not freeze: it throws the woman from one point to another. She rolls down a mountain, hides in the roots of a tree, lies quietly behind a sofa, falls into the water, watches the clouds while lying in a boat.
You never know what will kill you and what will set you free. Sometimes a chance call from the madman's wife, who spontaneously decided to come to the hut where he usually cuts up corpses, turns out to be a saving grace, and sometimes it is the river current that can pick up an immobilized body and carry it to a safer place.
Don't Move Mainly Focuses on Only Two Characters
Don't Move has a great scene where the main characters find themselves in a confined space with Bill, a stranger who finds Iris immobilized in the woods at the beginning of her journey.
At first, the man decides to help the woman and hides her, but the appearance of Richard, who skillfully portrays a husband saddened by the disappearance of his wife, makes the old man doubt the loyalty of his chosen side.
The situation in which each of the characters feels uncomfortable and feverishly goes through the options that are most beneficial for him personally, creates a good tension, which makes us assume that the movie will continue to realize this potential.
Unfortunately, the writers move away from close interaction with the secondary characters and leave Richard and Iris alone with each other.
Don't Move Is a Controversial but Interesting Experiment
The script has enough holes in it that it's hard to write it off as an artistic convention. For example, Richard's stupid mistakes are only written to move the plot in the right direction.
Richard himself resembles Josh Hartnett's main character in the recent Trap. He has a nice conversation on the phone with his daughter and his wife and also has a strong power of persuasion. It is only when Richard begins to outline his theory of the murders that all the charm evaporates and his image shrinks to that of just another movie psychopath.
Don't Move is a genre attraction in which the creators sacrificed plausibility and conviction for the sake of an experimental idea. On the other hand, it is still better than the big-budget soulless movies: Don't Move is an attempt to do something special.