Starring
Armie Hammer, Annabelle Wallis, Tom Cullen, Clint Dyer. Directed by
Fabio Guaglione & Fabio Resinaro. (2016, 107 min).
Movies
which which primarily feature a single character in a
simple-but-perilous predicament are inherently intriguing, though
difficult to pull off well. The best ones - The Shallows is a
great recent example - are gripping, visceral experiences where the
viewer can't help but put themselves in the character's shoes. Others feel too slight and unnecessarily padded out to feature
length. Mine falls somewhere in between.
The
premise is terrific. Armie Hammer plays Mike
Stevens, a marine sniper deployed in Africa to kill a reported
terrorist. After the mission fails, he and buddy Tommy Madison (Tom
Cullen) must walk across a massive desert on-foot for
extraction. Along the way, they stumble into a minefield. Mike steps
on one, which will detonate if he lifts his foot. Tommy's not so
lucky; his legs are blown off and he eventually kills himself,
leaving Mike alone, miles from the nearest village.
He
manages to contact his superiors, who inform him they can't come in
for a rescue for 52 hours. With almost no water, Mike must remain
nearly immobile while fending off nocturnal predators and dealing
with the elements (including desert heat and a massive sand storm).
 |
| "Man, some of that's gonna get in my shorts." |
These
scenes - Mike alone in the desert, his chances for survival dropping
each hour - are fairly gripping. Hammer delivers a suitably gritty
performance, effectively conveying both stoicism and desperation.
Less effective are numerous flashback scenes, mostly involving his
abusive father (Geoff Bell) or his fiancee, Jenny (Annabelle Wallis).
While they're obviously meant to provide a bit of background to the character,
the overuse of flashbacks is somewhat intrusive, repeatedly sucking
the viewer out of Mike's current predicament.
I
also could have done without Berber (Clint Dyer), a village local who
frequently visits Mike throughout his ordeal. He initially provides
Mike with water, but later ends up offering metaphors about life and
fate. Seemingly serving as a host for the Mike's hallucinations, the
character's actual purpose grows increasingly baffling with each scene.
While
there's a good argument that Mine might have been more
effective as a short subject, the scenario alone keeps us interested
enough to power through the padding and see it through to the end.
The film comes to a fairly satisfying - and amusingly ironic -
conclusion that more-or-less justifies our time.
EXTRA
KIBBLES
MAKING-OF
FEATURETTE
VFX
& STORYBOARDS
DELETED
SCENES
TRAILER
DVD
COPY
KITTY CONSENSUS:
NOT BAD...LIKE CAT CHOW
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