Red Eye (2005)

Directed by Wes Craven. Starring Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Jayma Mays, Brian Cox, Robert Scalia, Angela Paton. [PG-13]

Brisk, compact thriller from director Craven eschews the bloody shocks for which he’s known in favor of a marginally naturalistic and tense psychological nail-biter. Charming but mysterious Murphy chats up hotel manager McAdams on a late flight, but things take a sinister turn when he reveals he wants something from her, the consequences either way being fatal. Film’s prognosis at the outset is foreboding with its parade of obnoxious passenger types—chatty old lady, rude jerk, precocious child, etc.—and it becomes overly clichéd and ridiculous by the end (right around the point someone fires an anti-tank missile, and that was already forgiving the person who could sprint with a hole in their trachea), but the middle stretch aboard the plane is reasonably effective, dominated by likable McAdams masking insecurities with resourceful conviction and Murphy’s creepy menace. A modest if uneven success, the kind of movie one can enjoy watching with half-interest aboard a plane and forget shortly after, though it seems unlikely to ever be broadcast on one.

59/100