The Desperate Hour (2022)

A mother goes above and beyond to save her child after a horrific event that forced authorities to place a small town on lockdown.

Suspenseful and thrilling despite its small faults. The first act, the set-up, effectively provides all the necessary background info about the family and the surrounding environment in fifteen minutes. Even though I found it a bit too American at times, maybe you won’t even notice. In parallel, it lays a solid foundation for the second act’s suspenseful sequences.

The film’s trailer and IMDb’s logline don’t disclose the predicament, so I’d rather keep it under wraps as well. The incident refers to the plague that wreaks havoc in the US, and I’m sure hundreds of families who have been through that will not be able to watch it no matter which side of the fence they stand on.

I’ll say no more about the plot, so you get its full force when you come across it. It’s only an hour and twenty minutes, and it’s definitely worth your time. Naomi Watts is incredible, carrying the whole film on her shoulders. She is a powerful actress, and she hasn’t stopped proving it. Besides Watts, the film’s strong suit is the off-screen and restricted narrative. You constantly know as much as the mother does, and dark imagination, hair-raising speculations, and terrifying thoughts replace the facts you don’t know.

Somewhere down the line, it gets somewhat far-fetched, but don’t let that prevent you from watching it. Chris Sparling, the writer behind Buried (2010) and Sea of Trees (2015) and director Phillip Noyce, the man behind Sliver (1993), The Quite American (2002) and The Giver (2014), bring to life a lockdown film that will cut your breath short despite the script’s minor wrinkles or its filmmaking techniques. I hope it gets your attention.

Please, don’t forget to share and subscribe. If you enjoy my work and dedication to films, please feel free to support me on https://www.patreon.com/kaygazpro. Any contribution is much appreciated and valued.

Solidarity for all the innocent lives who suffer the atrocities of war!

Stay safe!