Date: Fri 11-Jul-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: CAROLK

Quick Words:

Breakdown-Playing-Russell

Full Text:

(rev "Breakdown" for Now Playing, 7/11/97)

Now Playing: "Breakdown" Is A Surprising Nail-Biter That Should Not Be Shunned

By Trey Paul Alexander III

Despite the increasingly exorbitant price of tickets (the Edmond Town Hall

theater in Newtown excluded), I'm yet a firm believer that movies are meant to

be seen in a theatre and are worth the extra dollars for the opportunity of

catching them on the big screen. That said, however, one of the risks of

journeying to the cinema is the X-factor of the audience: Will it be a

cooperative bunch, enjoying the visceral experience with other film patrons,

or will it be a motley crew of jeering, disruptive malcontents who appear to

think a ticket stub gives them carte blanche to act as if they're watching

within the confines of their own living rooms?

Before Breakdown , currently showing at the Edmond Town Hall theater, opened

in early May, I recall sitting in a theatre as its frantic trailer, depicting

a desperate Kurt Russell searching for his missing wife, played to a full

house. Seconds after the preview finished and the last image of a ragged,

resolute Russell flashed before us, one of the aforementioned malcontents

present yelled "Gimme back my wife!" invoking, albeit with perfect pitch, the

tenor of Mel Gibson's "Gimme back my son" rant from Ransom . Though I

expressly deplore the practice of using a packed moviehouse as one's own

comedy sounding board, I must admit the shouted line was quite funny. But it

also subtly lent to my early dismissal of this film, which in reality is a

well-designed nail-biter that should not be so easily shunned.

Breakdown features Russell as Jeff Taylor, a fish out of water - an Easterner

traveling cross-country with his wife (Kathleen Quinlan) to a new job in San

Diego. Out in the middle of nowhere, on a dusty stretch of highway, their

spiffy red Jeep Grand Cherokee stalls out and leaves them helpless. Their

options are limited until they are given aid by a good samaritan trucker (J.T.

Walsh), who offers to give Jeff's wife a ride to the nearest diner so she can

phone for help. But that help never comes, and when Jeff finally arrives at

the diner, no one can recall seeing neither his wife nor the friendly trucker.

What gives?

The mystery gets more twisted when Jeff, feeling every bit the outsider in

these parts that he is, runs into the trucker and now finds the driver claims

never to have met him or his wife! Jeff reports his situation to the police,

but little by little he begins to suspect that whatever is happening to him

may involve more people than he can count. The only person he can truly trust

is himself if he ever wants to uncover the truth about his wife's whereabouts.

The strengths of Breakdown , directed and co-written by big screen first-timer

Jonathan Mostow, are many, including the sturdy performances of its cast (a

host of familiar faces but few big names), but the main reasons for its

triumph are twofold. First, it boasts a dependable narrative that is shorn of

unnecessary clutter and distraction. This was evident when the film was first

released, but becomes even more apparent in the wake of such over-produced,

cluttered fests as this summer's Jurassic Park and Batman sequels.

Secondly, its aim does not exceed its reach. Breakdown never pretends to

reinvent the thriller genre; the fingerprints of classic Hitchcock, early

Spielberg and others are all over this clever concoction. However, it aspires

to use the conventions of the genre well, and in that it succeeds mightily,

thus making what might have seemed stale and otherwise old hat, appear fresh

and inventive.

Breakdown is rated R. Besides the harrowing premise of having one's wife

vanish without a trace, it features some scenes of realistic, though not

excessively gory violence, and contains occasionally strong use of profanity.