13 Minutes – Edge of Your Seat Thriller
Director: Lindsay Gossling
Writer: Lindsay Gossling (Screenplay) Travis Farncombe (Story)
Starring: Thora Birch, Amy Smart, Paz Vega, Anne Heche, Sofia Vassilieva, Laura Spencer, Peter Facinelli, Will Peltz
Plot: Four families in a Heartland town are tested in a single day when a tornado hits, forcing paths to cross and redefining the meaning of survival.
Runtime: 1 Hour 48 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: 13 Minutes starts as we meet the residents of the town, Jess (Birch) and her daughter Maddy (Vassilieva) who is dealing with an unplanned pregnancy, she has been keeping to herself. Ana (Vega) a motel cleaner who is dealing with her own problems with her fiancée. Kim (Smart) who helps run the town in emergency management, looking to keep everything together for the town, as they look to make sure they are prepared for any threats coming their way.
With a storm building, Kim calls for the warnings to be put in place, with the community coming together to make sure everyone is safe, when the story comes their way, as any differences they might have will need to be put aside to survive this storm.
Thoughts on 13 Minutes
Characters & Performances – Jess is one of the members of staff at car mechanics, she has raised her daughter, waiting for her to go off to college, she knows everyone in town, looking to help them in if they need it. Kim runs the emergency planning team in the town, she will do everything she can to make sure the town is prepared for what might be coming there way with the storm potentially coming their way, knowing when to not panic react, but give the town a chance with warnings. This character is put into one of the hardest positions around, knowing she needs to not overreact, but also want to protect her own child, who is deaf, one she can’t be with during the storm. Maddy is the teenage daughter of Jess, she is trying to figure out what to do after learning she is pregnant, finally getting to turn to her mother for advice, while still being stuck trying to make her own decision, caught in the middle of the storm babysitting Kim’s daughter. Ana is one of the maids at the motel, she is hoping to move into the area with her fiancée, if he can find work, making the drastic decision which will save many lives during the storm. We do meet many more characters who are within this community, that show people can come together. The performances in this film come off natural from everyone involved, with a big mention needed to be said for the casting of the young deaf actress Shaylee Mansfield in the role of the daughter unaware of the alerts.
Story – The story here follows a small community that are always prepared for a storm, how they work together when one comes and the work they do if one does hit them. The story does an excellent job of putting us into the different lives of the characters, showing us how these people could see their lives turned upside down by tornadoes, focusing more on the community than the big disaster happening. This is refreshing, as we have complex characters dealing with many different issues, be it remaining professional, understand and accepting people who are different and looking to put differences aside. This will show the bigger aftermath of a tornado on a community, something people would go through and struggling with in the aftermath.
Themes – 13 Minutes is an action thriller that will give us the mega storm, but will reframe from going into anything detail with the destruction, putting more focus on the community. The small town helps shows the community how each business will work together to do favours and will come together in the aftermath.
Signature Entertainment presents 13 Minutes on Digital Platforms 1st November and DVD 17th January
Final Thoughts – 13 Minutes is a shocking look at the devastation a tornado can leave on a community.