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John Goodman in a jovial mood
B+In a world in which every major new movie is picked apart by social media vultures months before it arrives in theaters, J.J. Abrams, producer of 10 Cloverfield Lane, surprised fans and critics alike when most in the industry learned of the movie’s existence a mere six weeks before its release. Even more surprising, the film manages to live up to its non-hype.
For most of its running time, 10 Cloverfield Lane is a taut, claustrophobic suspense thriller featuring three people in a subterranean bunker designed as a survival shelter. Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) finds herself chained to a wall in the bunker when she wakes up after being injured in an auto accident. Howard (John Goodman) tells her he rescued her and that the outside world is uninhabitable as a result of a cataclysmic disaster. However, Howard is clearly disturbed, leading an increasingly desperate Michelle to plan an escape, with the help of Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.), who sayst that he helped Howard build the shelter and is now its third resident.
Like its pre-release marketing campaign, 10 Cloverfield Lane does an excellent job of keeping the audience guessing as a result of its selective presentation of information to both Michelle and the audience. At times, it seems that Howard is right and that something terrible has happened (especially when Michelle briefly glimpses a woman outside the shelter’s only window, pleading to be let in). At other times, however, Howard appears to be exactly the type of guy who would keep an attractive young woman locked up in an underground room with him for months. Abrams magnifies this uncertainty (and the pre-release buzz) by using the word “Cloverfield” in the film’s title, a reference to his 2008 monster thriller to which 10 Cloverfield Lane may—or may not—be related. The key to the current film’s success is Goodman’s tantalizingly ambiguous performance as Howard, a man whose nature repeatedly seems to change before Michelle’s eyes. When 10 Cloverfield Lane does get physical, first-time director Dan Trachtenberg takes full advantage of the cramped quarters to ramp up the suspense as Michelle, in her efforts to escape, tries to maneuver herself into spaces where the considerably larger Howard cannot go. Eventually, Michelle and the audience learn the truth in a finale that, although well made, can’t help being somewhat of a letdown. 10 Cloverfield Lane is not a letdown or a gimmick, despite its title and unusual marketing campaign. Instead, it’s one of the better thrillers that audiences are likely to see this year.
Continue reading on 10 Cloverfield Lane: Mini-review
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