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The Desperate Hour

2021

Phillip Noyce

Naomi Watts, Sierra Maltby, Colton Gobbo, Debra Wilson ...

4.4

918

Thriller Amy Carr (Naomi Watts) is out for what should have been a restorative morning run when a friend calls with terrifying news: authorities are in pursuit of an active shooter, and her teenage son, Noah, may be caught in the middle. Deep within a network of forest paths surrounding her home, miles from town and nearly overwhelmed by panic, Amy refuses to succumb to hopelessness. With her smartphone as her sole means of intervention, she ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Richard Roeper Chicago Sun-Times	"'Desperate Hour' is well-intentioned, and there are flashes of genuine dramatic tension, thanks to Watts’ performance. Mostly, though, it feels contrived and heavy-handed (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"	NEU
United States	John DeFore The Hollywood Reporter	"A case study in how storytelling contrivances can sabotage a courageously vulnerable performance (...) [A] fundamentally flawed film"	NEG
United Kingdom	Benjamin Lee The Guardian	"[It] starts out with tension but ends up in silliness (...) Other than providing work for a crew who sorely needed it, there’s very little reason for 'Lakewood' to exist (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"	NEG
United States	Marya E. Gates The Playlist	"Using the collective trauma of a generation of parents and children as the backdrop for a real-time thriller (...) remains unconscionably distasteful"	NEG
United Kingdom	Allan Hunter Screendaily	"'Lakewood' is one of those films where your head wants to dismiss it as cheesy B-movie nonsense whilst your heart is racing along and you feel every jolt of the emotional rollercoaster"	NEU
United States	Brian Tallerico rogerebert.com	"One of the worst movies I’ve ever seen in my years of TIFF coverage. Stunningly incompetent when it’s not being offensively exploitative, this is an infuriating film"	NEG
United States	Robert Abele The Wrap	"Naomi Watts races against time and tedium in dull thriller. The audience is always many steps ahead of this tension-free slog"	NEG
United States	Pete Hammond Deadline	"[Watts offers] a tour de force of acting, and we are with her – terrified – all the way. Hitchcock knew how to do this stuff, and I think Noyce made this in the master’s spirit."	POS
United States	Kristen Lopez IndieWire	"It becomes unintentionally hilarious to watch Amy try to run miles upon miles (...) [Its] gaps in logic become increasingly ridiculous"	NEG
United States	Owen Gleiberman Variety	"[It] tells the story of a woman and her trusty cell phone. In a way, it’s their love story (...) It reduces the specter of a school shooting to a glorified exploitation device"	NEG
United States	Oli Welsh Polygon	"If 'The Desperate Hour' can change even one mind by stealth, by declining to point fingers, then maybe it was the right call. But it seems more likely that its lack of courage will leave preconceptions unchallenged"	NEU
United States	Derek Smith Slant	"Noyce and Sparling are using the all-too-familiar tragedies as a shameless way of generating emotional stakes to enliven the painfully thriller tropes that are the real, and weak, backbone of the film (…) Rating: ½ (out of 4)"	NEG
Canada	Mel Valentin Screen Anarchy	"Watts is never less than convincing from the first, seemingly normal scene to the last, moving moment before the end credits roll (...) 'The Desperate Hour' offers small-scale, superficial thrills"	NEU
United States	Chris Evangelista SlashFilm	"Every step Amy takes towards the school is another misstep the movie makes, and by the time she gets to her destination, we've already mentally checked out"	NEG
United States	Siddhant Adlakha The New York Observer	"The filmmaking works in and of itself, but that Lakewood feels so emotionally in tune with its lead actress is a feat all on its own (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
Canada	Sarah Bea Milner Screen Rant	"Is 'The Desperate Hour' tedious and dull? Without question, yes. The subject matter is so inappropriate for this kind of story that the entire movie-viewing experience is tinged with a sickening hue (…) Rating: ★ (out of 5)"	NEG
Denmark	Karina Adelgaard Heaven of Horror	"This particular storyline just includes far too many 'entertainment' or 'action'-driven plot points in the final part (...) Still, it is worth watching for that first half! (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	Jared Mobarak The Film Stage	"So while Noyce and Watts try their best to ramp up tension, Sparling's foundation proves too flimsy to comply"	NEU

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