The Intruder: Review by @Kush_Hayes
Director Deon Taylor must have had a terrible experience in the country once. I open this review with that statement because back to back movies now, hes directed a Young All American City Couple who have one or more traumatic experiences in the country.
Theres very good tension in this movie. The director knows how to play with lights and shadow and reflections in the glass, as I went on about in a previous review. Taylor sets up a great location and shows you where all of the vulnerable spots of the property are and that helps add to the paranoia of living in “the quiet” of the country.
Our couple played by Michael Ealy and Meagan Goode have good chemistry and play off each other well. But their characters are just awful. That may be writter David Lougherys secret commentary about this generations batch of mid-late “twentysomethings” letting others take advantage of their kindness, or maybe just somethings (plural) got changed in production and they were not strong enough to carry a 1 hour 41 min story.
The story, very simple, Young successful All American couple decide to start a family in the country, and the guy they buy the house from, who comes off as mentally unstable from the beginning, will not stop coming by the house unannounced. The former homeowner, played by Dennis Quaid, who steals every scene hes in, steps over boundaries on his first strike, which any one else would have just called the cops and had him arrested. But then theres a strike two, and a strike three, and then a strike seven. Despite husband Ealy telling Quaid very sternly “Do not come back” and then repeating to his wife Goode “Do not let him back.”, Once Dennis comes back again, with pizza, and she lets him in, again, our screenings entire audience groaned in disapproval.
Dennis Quaid, as mentioned, steals every scene. He brings this slow burn to his characters unraveling. It makes me wonder how this is the first time we’ve seen him in a role like this. Before we really learn about his character, you feel sympathy for the story his character has told our new homeowners, but ultimately even the nonsense as described above overpowers the characters performance to where you are annoyed by his presence.
Time seems to move very quickly in this movie, but even after shifts in holidays you wonder why this is still a thing and you wonder why Law Enforcement hasnt been brought in. A restraining order is attempted at one point, but when its unsuccessfully not served, its as if the poilce are no longer an option. A security system that displays over an app on your cellphone gets installed and is never attempted to be used.
This feels like it was a TV movie, that they tried to stretch into a theatrical release, or it was intended to be something much more and was watered down into a repetitive PG13 by “pick a reason”
Two out of Six Blueberries
Rated PG-13 for violence, terror, some sexuality, language and thematic elements.
This review was originally published May 1st 2019 on Kush And Kai
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