If you liked "Hand That Rocks the Cradle", or "Eye for An
Eye", you are gonna like
"Breakdown". Playing on our darkest fears, it takes a simple
car breakdown in the desert
to the brink of disaster. Kurt Russell is the husband who waves good-bye
to his wife,
Kathleen Quinlan, when she gets into JT Walsh's semi when their Jeep breaks
down. He
begins to get worried when she isn't at the diner where they were supposed
to meet. And
he has good reason to worry. JT Walsh has only played the good guy once
that I can
recall, so the moral of the story is never get into a truck with JT Walsh.
No, the moral of
the story is that we are all unconnected and no one will even notice if
we go missing.
The vast Southwest is the perfect backdrop for writer/director Jonathan
Mostow's eerie
story. All we know of the couple is that they are uprooted, as are so many
of us. When
confronted with a dangerous situation, they must rise it, as we all hope
we would. There
is nothing new, or original about the story but it is nonetheless entertaining.
That is due
in part to our desires to face our unnamed fears and in part due to the
manipulation of
those fears by legendary producer Dino DeLaurentis. The man knows how to
manipulate
an audience with just the right plot twists and just the right cast. Russell
proves that men
get better looking as they get older. JT Walsh is a treasure as always.
He looks so
ordinary, so believable and can turn menacing with the tip of a gimme cap.
And the
Jeep folks must have loved the mini-commercial touting the durability of
their vehicle.
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