The action is fast moving and the audience are immediately thrown in, which set the pace and tone for the rest of the movie. The family spends 90 minutes or so trying to escape a populous mob, who are targeting foreigners (particularly those involved with the water company, Cardiff). The scenes in this movie are as tense as the mob is ruthless. It's a bite-your-lip, edge-of-your-seat, grab-your-husband's-hand-and-don't-let-go kind of tension, which happens to be the kind of watch that I love.You've just landed in a foreign country, and foreign in every sense of the word. At one point Annie (Bell) tries to read a map in a life-or-death moment, and even the alphabet is incomprehensible. Trying to put yourself in their shoes was truly frightening, and the director did a great job getting the audience to come on the journey with the Dwyer clan.
One slight grievance I had was the complete lack of awareness the Dwyers had about the country, culture, language and goings-on of the place, which I found slightly unbelievable. You're moving there, to another continent, so presumably you've had some time to work on your local knowledge, which might have worked in your favour. Even if it was just to get a pint of milk. A very slight grievance, it may be said.
Overall, I thought this was a fast-paced emotional thriller and I couldn't imagine anything worse than being in that situation. It gripped me from start to finish, the characters were fairly agreeable and overall I liked it a lot.
No Escape - 6/10
