“On the Run From Terrorists and a Disembodied Voice” A.O. Scott
From the start of the film you get a sense that something big is happening. Bigger than the people we are quickly getting to know more about. Jerry is a normal guy working at “Copy Cabana” and Rachael is a single mom working as a paralegal . With Jerry’s twin brother just dying and Rachael’s son just sent off on a school field trip, they are both very alone in their sad lives.
With a twist of fate the two each receive a phone call from a woman with very explicit instructions to follow. This is when the action becomes so intense I thought my fingers lost circulation from holding onto one another so tight.
So far, so good. The principals are a bit confused about what’s happening to them, and so is the audience, but that’s as it should be. Are Jerry and Rachel, who have been receiving menacing phone calls from a mysterious woman with an accentless, affectless voice, patsies in a terrorist conspiracy?
It seems that way, but then again, why would a terrorist organization with the capacity to hack into cellphone lines, construction cranes, city buses and security cameras need to mess with stressed-out ordinary citizens? Maybe it’s not terrorism at all but some kind of government conspiracy.
I sometimes wonder what would happen if the government could spy on me without my knowledge. This picture takes things a little farther when it injects a faulty computer capable of committing devious deeds. The battle between the computer’s mind and the human mind is fascinating. I ROBOT comes to mind. The very thought of what could happen should this fantasy become a reality is scary.
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