Caught Inside (Michael Blaiklock, 2010) wr. Michael Blaiklock, Matt Tomaszewski, Joe Velikovsky; Ben Oxenbould, Daisy Betts, Sam Lyndon, Simon Lyndon, Leeanna Walsman, Peter Phelps
Adam Blaiklock's film features surfing in the Maldives, and I hope it drew an audience for that, and for the fantasy of a group of beautiful young people on a yacht on holiday. However, the essence of the film, I suggest, is not in that, nor in the thriller story that the teasers suggest it might be. I see it as a quasi-Brechtian morality tale, in which the viewer is invited to enter the moral universe of each character, and asked: 'What would you have done?' It's not until the very last line of the film that the interrogation is complete. For once I want to say well done! to the three writers.
... a film that feels a little hollow. That's because the ending indulges in the kind of blood-thirsty cathartic climax that seems to have staggered in from a very different kind of genre film. On one level, it's pure visceral filmmak[ing], a necessary bloodletting, and yet, it feels a little phoney and not quite right. By movie's end, the characters no longer feel real – they're just figures, playing a movie game. Peter Galvin, SBS Film.
It's predictable and obvious ... but Caught Inside sticks to its genre conventions so tightly it looks like insurance. Andrew L. Urban, urban cinefile.
The mystery of human behaviour is a fascinating topic, which is good reason for many screenwriters to explore different situations and reactions. Louise Keller, urban cinefile.
Garry Gillard | New: 11 October, 2012 | Now: 26 January, 2020