STUCK (2007)

Screen Story & Directed By: Stuart Gordon 
Written By: John Strysik 
Cinematography By: Denis Maloney 
Editor: Andy Horvitch 

Cast: Mena Suvari, Stephen Rea, Russell Hornsby, Rukiya Bernard
Based on a real event in 2001. Chante Mallard, a black woman in Fort Worth, Texas, was driving drunk and on ecstasy when she struck Gregory Biggs, a homeless man, who became lodged in her car's windshield. She then drove home, locked the car in the garage, and left Biggs to die. After bragging about "killing a white man" in the presence of an enemy who turned her in, Mallard was convicted of murder and evidence tampering and sentenced to fifty years in prison. That’s not how it goes here. The tale is obviously expanded for more of a dramatic and thrilling movie. So that wasn’t some kind of spoiler. The thing that makes this movie interesting is that it is a dark comedy/Thriller. Where you can understand each characters motivation.

Mena Suvari as the lead is impressive. This maybe her best performance though the corn rolls are horrible and distracting. She just panics and proceeds to make one bad decision after another, never truly realizing after she messes up each one to maybe do the right thing.

Stephen Rea is there nothing the man can’t do. As the sad sack victim. Who only truly comes alive when he tries to survive as before he seemed more of a sad sack who is sleepwalking through life.

That is what this movie is truly about, Survival. Each one of the characters struggling, Her trying to get through this without going to jail or worse lose her job, him trying to get out of the windshield and not die or let her kill him. Her character even works at a nursing home, where the characters are close to death and trying to survive long enough to make it through the day.

Even though this film is only 86 minutes, I wish it was longer, but they couldn’t have him bleed for another hour and somehow stay alive and make it believable. This isn’t one of those type of movies. The film reminds one of the story from CREEPSHOW 2. Where the lady hits a bum with her car but keeps coming back to try and kill her. This film doesn’t go to that extreme. This is a little more realistic, but it does have one of the most realistic extreme sex scenes. I have seen in a recent R-Rated movie.

Scriptwriter John Strysik has stated that the last name of Stephen Rea's character - Bardo - comes from the Buddhist term for an intermediate or transitional state of being, and thus is a reference to the life-or-death situation Tom experiences.

None of the characters is purely evil. They are full blooded characters reacting to a situation with more animal instincts then thought. They could be any of us under certain circumstances. One of the cruel jokes of the movie is that everytime. You think he will be saved it backfires and while I liked the ending. It comes down to you the viewer whether or not it is justified or not. Either way this is a definite must see must see that will make you think while being entertained. In a B-Movie package.

GRADE: B