20131220: Thriller Review--Crawl

Crawl

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Australian live action feature length film, 2011, NR, 80 minutes, thriller, crime.
2. IMDB: 4.8/10.0 from 614 audience ratings.  Estimated budget, 500,000 AUD. Aspect: 2.35
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 71% on the meter; 17% liked it from 117 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.9/5.0 from 35,685 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by: Paul China.
6. Starring: George Shevtsov as The Stranger ('The Croatian'), Bob Newman as Rusty Sapp, Georgina Haig as Marilyn Burns, Lauren Dillon as Holly, Lynda Stoner as Eileen, Paul Holmes as Slim Walding, Paul Bryant as Sergeant Byrd, John Rees-Osborne as Constable Rolly.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The Croatian comes to town and sanctions (kills for hire) the owner of a petrol station, Rusty Sapp.  He gets paid by the Slim Walding (who owns the bar where most of the other characters work) and leaves town.  He runs over a pedestrian on the way to his next stop.  This turns out to be Travis, who's truck had stalled out.


2. Marilyn prepares for the return of her fiance to be, Travis.  He's late for business reasons.  Then he keeps on being late.  The Croatian breaks in, ties her up, and gags her.  He's looking for transportation, but Travis had the truck as well as the keys to the old motorcycle.


3. The police come visit Slim Walding about the murder of Rusty Sapp.  Later, Slim and Holly play the spanking game to work off Holly's debt to Slim.  He makes her crawl to him before she gets over his knee, bares her bottom, then spanks her hard.


4. The Croatian goes back and kills what's left of Travis, then steals the engagement ring from the corpse.  Slim finds his gun missing; he figures he's being set up.  He drives to Marilyn's house, finds Travis' blood, Travis' truck, but not Travis.  So he heads to Marilyn's house; he steps in the chocolate cake Marilyn's friend left on the stoop.  He sees the blood from the Croatian's wounded leg.  He tries to get answers after he unties Marilyn, but she has few answers.  The Croatian comes in and disrupts their conversation.  Then the Croatian goes after Marilyn.


5. Do we find out the Croatian's motivations? Does Slim get what he seems to deserve?  Will Marilyn survive all this?


3. Conclusions
1. This film reminded me of Blood Simple (1984) more than any other single film.
2. One line summary: An interesting but incomplete effort by first time director Paul China.
3. Final Rating: 8/10


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Excellent.


2. Sound: 8/10 The incidental music was often spot on, but sometimes overbearingly loud.


3. Acting: 7/10 Just fine if one likes the acting style that the Coen brothers favour.


4. Screenplay: 7/10 Just what was the plot against Slim?  What was the history with Slim and Holly?  How did the Croatian come into play here?  There are a few too many loose ends here.