Review: "Wrecked"

Wrecked (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Do you remember the end of the movie "Snake Eyes", and the condition of Nicolas Cage's character? He was limping, bruised, bleeding and a bit hysterical (of course). Wasn't that cool? Now, imagine that a near unknown independent feature comes along, with little to no dialogue, just one main setting, and an actor that has to START the movie from where Cage ended the one listed above. Oh, and the actor is Adrien Brody. How much would that rock?

Luckily, someone already imagined it. In "Wrecked", Adrien Brody plays a man with no name, who wakes up in a crashed car in a forest. A few dead bodies surround the area, making him the only known survivor. His leg is broken and trapped, his face is cut up and heavily bruised and he is scared shitless. Remember, this is the beginning of the film.

Throughout the next 90 minutes, we witness Brody (who I explained in an earlier post is a sex symbol) cry, piss on himself, hallucinate, crawl through the woods and make friends with a dog. Slowly, through flashbacks and some evidence on the ground, we get the idea that he was somehow involved in a bank robbery - but he has more pressing matters to deal with; finding help and staying sane.

As an oscar winner, Brody ought to be choosing cushy roles - the kind that guarantee large paydays and maybe critical acclaim. Instead, he fucks a genetic hybrid ("Splice"), kills alien hunters ("Predators"), portrays Salvador Dali ("Midnight in Paris") and stars as Psycho Ed ("High School"). When he picks a role, it must be because it sounds fun.

And, you know what, watching Brody grunt for an entire movie IS fun.

Holding this movie back are the flashbacks and the ending. It would've been much better to have seen Adrien not remember ANYTHING, and just watch his character struggle with a broken/infected leg, trying to survive another day. Instead, we find out exactly how he ended up in the accident, what the hallucinations meant and that it was all some weird PSA for seat belts.

What was the point of all of this? *Spoilers* Brody was a hostage who caused the accident to get away from the robbers, and the hallucination was his wife, who we thought was a representation of guilt or something (which he shoots at one point). Was this just about survival? A guy loots the car at one point, and is later found dead in a cave - what happened and what did that mean?

I think this was all just an excuse to watch Adrien Brody do a mix of "127 Hours" and "Cast Away", minus the dialogue and hope. A new genre called Brody-sploitation has been created, and for that, I thank the filmmakers. Oh, and Adrien Brody, of course.

3/5 *'s