SHA OOBIE, SHATTERED
2022's Shattered is well, shattering (the title is trite but it kinda fits). It's a feature that never lets up and well, doesn't want to. Call it Misery with airbrush millennials. Call it 2015's Knock Knock without the Keanu overreaching and cringy threesomes. Finally call 911 and have the sirens blaring. Oh wait, that doesn't happen till the very end (a film cliche).
Shattered is about identity theft coupled with murder, manipulation, and torture. Ugh. No one wants that noise. A rich guy named Chris Decker (played by Cameron Monaghan) gets put through the ringer by a psychotic female bent on stealing his entire life savings. Chris should've never stuck his you know what in crazy, should've never invited crazy into his home, and should have never told crazy, "I love you". He did though to fuel the diegesis. Hence, there's a movie (yay).
Slick, tech savvy, and directed with modern-day panache by TV vet Luis Prieto, Shattered doesn't get its footing till the 40-minute mark. Yeah I was worried until things finally got dicey (in a good way). Prieto fashions Shattered as kind of rote but somehow he gets by. I mean thriller enthusiasts (like myself) just salivate when a flick involves that old adage of anyone being held against their will by a chiquita who is off the reservation. We want said chiquita to get what's coming to her even if her makeup and bruised ego get a little desheveled (that's an understatement).
Shattered co-stars John Malkovich and Frank Grillo whose roles could probably be played in their sleep (you won't mind). As for the main antagonist (Lilly Krug as Sky), well she's a nasty femme fatale with a mean streak and a knack for using her spread-eagle as a taut, lethal weapon. Mercy. She left me in "tatters".
Written by Jesse Burleson
No comments:
Post a Comment