The Desperate Hour is a solid real-time thriller.
Director: Phillip Noyce
Writer: Chris Sparling (Screenplay)
Starring: Naomi Watts, Colton Gobbo, Andrew Chown, Sierra Maltby, Michelle Johnston
Plot: A mother desperately races against time to save her child as authorities place her small town on lockdown.
Runtime: 1 Hour 24 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: The Desperate Hour starts as Amy (Watts) the widowed mother of Noah (Gobbo) and Emily (Maltby). Looks to take a day off on the anniversary of her husband’s death, taking the time for a jog for the local woodland.
As she is on the jog, she starts getting alarming calls of a shooting at her son’s school. Stranded away from everyone, she is desperate to get to where the victims are heading. She only learns about what is happening through updates on her phone.
Thoughts on The Desperate Hour
The Desperate Hour is a thriller showing the desperation a mother finds herself in after a school shooting starts in one of her child’s schools. It will keep us with the mother where Naomi Watts will be carrying the film. With her up and down reactions through the events of the film. Some of the decisions Amy makes are strange and dangerous, no matter what she is trying to do. It comes off as panic, which would be the natural reaction.
The story tries to throw us a couple of twists along the way about who the suspect will be. Which does make the emotions Amy goes through even more intense. The real time clock ticking away make it feel like a living news report for Amy to go through. Putting her in an everyday situation of a jog, without an easy way to get to the school. Helps with the locations and helplessness she is going through in the journey for answers.
