Stuck

I'm quite amazed that Stuart Gordon's Stuck has recieved such little fanfare from his usual audience(..or horror fans in general) for it deals with a really unbelievable situation that could've been easily resolved yet wasn't.

Stuck features a grisly state of affairs for this really poor soul who gets hit by a drugged out(..on ecstasy) nurse driving wobbly on the road after leaving a club. He goes through her windshield, is bleeding all over her passenger side seat, is trapped, unable to hardly move, has a broken leg (..with a bone protruding from his pants leg), and needs serious attention. Yet, this nurse, who seems unconcerned for his condition as much as how informing the proper authorities or hospital would affect her potential payraise, leaves the injured and bleeding man stuck in the windshield..if he is to survive, this man will have to escape as she plots to have him "put away", asking help from her drug-dealing gangsta boyfriend who brags about his abilities to get rid of people.

Stuck is among the new films featuring director Gordon's metamorphosis from a fantasy supernatural filmmaker to a more story-character driven story-teller whose works are more grounded in realism, yet dealing with really dark subject matter containing brutal acts and uncompromising people who commit them. King of the Ants, Edmond, and now Stuck are directed in a more gritty, unpleasant fashion, with Gordon adopting the "shakey-cam" approach as if someone is following them, shooting faces up close, capturing emotions of the characters as a plot unfolds. I think Edmond is the most disturbing and thought-provoking, showing the evolution of a man fed up with his everyday same-ole same-ole routine, while King of the Ants shows this kid who had the misfortune of aligning himself with nefarious characters. Stuck, on the other hand, deals with a major decision and we watch as the repercussions snowball until the intense, very eye-opening conclusion.

I never felt Stuck even attempted to provide an ounce of sympathy for Brandi(Mena Suvari). She is positively selfish and fears for her own welfare instead of the endangered life of a victim who begs for assistance, simply wanting to be removed from his current predicament. Yet, time and again, she interferes with his goal to get away. If he is able to escape, will he tell the authorities about the one responsible for his belated aid? She's not willing to jeopardize everything and so Brandi instead schemes to have him done away with so that this "bum"(Stephen Rea's Thomas Bardo is down-on-his-luck and was looking for refuge when crossing the street, Brandi's drives into him)would no longer pose a threat to her career or life.

Gordon's Stuck is quite Hitchcockian and seems too difficult to believe would happen so when I learned that this movie was based on a real event, it floored me that such a person could just leave a man to die. Thankfully, Gordon's movie has compassion on Thomas Bardo, but he goes through absolute hell and it's gruesomely detailed by Gordon who is a wizard at making the viewer uneasy(..like when Thomas must pull the windshield wiper blade from his stomach, with little wiggle-room to spare or when he must splint his broken leg after finally dislodging himself). This man doesn't deserve this kind of horror which makes him a very sympathetic figure. The Hitchcockian aspect that comes into play has instances where , throughout the movie, Bardo is almost saved, such as the Mexican kid who hears him inside Brandi's garage, Bardo's blowing the car horn as a Taxi driver offers Brandi assistance(..she, to halt the blowing, clunks Thomas over the head with a block of wood!), a dog who sneaks into the garage through a hole(..in pure Gordon fashion, the dog licks the broken leg's bloody wound!)returns to her owner with blood on her mouth, and Bardo's near escape(..after an incredible prolonging trial of getting into the front seat, splinting his leg, crawling out of the car, and moving ever-so-slowly to potential safety) before Brandi and lover Rashid stop him.

The story is so simple yet I found myself gripped throughout the relatively short running time(the version I watched was around 80 or so minutes)because I always wondered how Brandi could continue to squirm her way out of the inevitable..I mean seriously, how could this girl possibly worm her way out of as difficult a situation as this?! And, I rather found myself amused at how Gordon kept toying with the viewer by offering up a series of potential rescues, with poor Thomas on the cusp of retreat, always returning to possible doom.

Suvari, to her credit, "glams down", burying herself into this unflattering character, in cornrows, with a rather foul mouth, not even flinching when boyfriend, Rashid(Russell Hornsby)talks of his violent career. The character Brandi is seen on the job temporarily and we get a glimpse into how important such a promotion is to these nurses who work in the field of taking care of the older population, the demands from both the elderly and hospital administrator(..played by Gordon's wife Carolyn Purdy, effectively bitchy as always), which take their toll.

It's interesting, too, how Brandi and Thomas relate in terms of the inhospitable world they find themselves. That desperation which motivates Brandi to commit her cruel deeds without guilt, and how Thomas will not die, a thorn she cannot remove.

Great little movie, I think, and an example of how the horror genre isn't as dead in America as is often spoken. There's a startling interratial sex scene between Suvari and Hornsby which is rather surprising, showing how Mena was committed to the part. The crash is pretty powerful stuff and I think one of the most jarring "body through windshield" impact scene I've witnessed.

In regards to the violence, the nasty flesh wound, for which Thomas must slow the bleeding, is really icky as is the eyeball pencil stabbing. I thought the finale(..such a wonderful sense of delightful irony in one of those "turn the tables" scenarios)was particularly fascinating in a variety of ways, from the standpoint of how both Brandi and Thomas respond to a development which changes everything around.

Highly recommended, if my opinion mattered for squat, that is.