Review: 'The Desperate Hour' is a film lost in the woods
ABC News
To say Naomi Watts is the only star in “The Desperate Hour” is a little misleading
To say Naomi Watts is the only star in “The Desperate Hour” is a little misleading. She's pretty much the only person in the film, that's true. But you could make the case that she has a co-star in her iPhone.
Watts spends most of “The Desperate Hour” furiously typing, listening, consulting, pleading or otherwise glued to her smartphone as it takes on an outsized importance. Alone and lost in the woods, it's her only lifeline to the world.
Watts plays Amy Carr as the first anniversary of her husband’s death approaches. She has a young daughter and a sullen, depressed teenage son. She goes on a five-mile jog into a forest and then finds out there's been a shooting at the local school. The film's meat is her harrowing hour of not knowing what's happening in gut-twisting worry.
As an acting exercise, it's intriguing — barely any scene partners and all unfolding in real time. As a film, not so much: After a plodding, placid start, it goes from first gear into fifth and never relents as the woes pile on.
