It’s not often it can be said but this sexually-charged (but inadvertently funny) home invasion thriller should have been longer. On paper its scenes were to be dripping in tension, teasing out the twists and turns, but someone hit the fast forward button, hurtling the film towards its ridiculous climax and plausibility be damned.
Elba plays Colin, an escaped convict with a propensity for violence towards women; he kills his girlfriend (Kate di Castillo) and in his haste to scarper crashes his getaway car into a tree outside the secluded house of former lawyer Terry (Taraji P. Henson). She’s at home with the kids as hubby (Simmons) is away and welcomes the flirty charms of this stranded stranger who comes knocking at her door. The two enjoy each other’s company but it’s not long before Colin’s dark and ugly tendencies surface again…
At first, the quick pace looks like Miller and writer Aimee Lagos want to get to the dynamic of the house as quickly as possible, but once they get there they want to get to the closing credits post-haste too. The speed at which events unfold give scenes no chance to develop any tension: it’s in - let the dun-dun-duuuuun music, the thunder, the unlikely dialogue, and improbable developments do a job - and out. Elba isn’t in the door five minutes and Henson’s comfortable to let him reach across the table and pick fluff from her hair; sure, she’s miffed with her husband for taking off, and yes, maybe best friend (Bibb) is right when she says he doesn’t deserve her, and yes Elba is a handsome man, but still.
The most frustrating thing of all is that it had the opportunity to be a decent B movie. Henson is on her own, but she can’t run and hide with a small girl and an infant upstairs. But this isn’t developed. Elba (going for gravel-voiced and smoulder) and Henson (mixing frightened and determined) do what they can with their underwritten roles and sometimes-laughable dialogue: "Where can I smoke without getting wet?"
