Retreat

Retreat

'Retreat' characterises the phrase, 'out of your comfort zone'. It puts characters, actors and filmmakers in this situation, from which all responded more than credibly. This psychological thriller keeps giving you the inch that something isn't right, it toys with your suspicions whilst keeping you sceptical yet engrossed in the events. The characters question morality with their paradoxical natures, Thandie Newton and Cillian Murphy both being vulnerable yet assertive in their own way, with Jamie Bell being selfish but also selfless. The depiction, for the bulk of the story, of a power struggle between 3 individuals instead of a married couple and an outsider enhances its impact. Unquestionably, the concept would have fallen flat without the acting performances to build upon an otherwise unremarkable setting. It made the film better than it should have been. Cillian Murphy became the unwilling victim rather than his regular victimiser role whilst Thandie Newton is a broken individual yet is the stronger willed. Both were outstanding but were outshone by Jamie Bell who grips you with his extremity, never quite revealing whether he is good, bad or evil. He keeps you on your toes, the essence of good thriller acting. 'Retreat' is closed enough to convey its own perceptions but open enough to allow you to interpret it as you please. In many ways, the production is far from spectacular and lifeless to the point of being depressing. But that's what gives it the suspenseful edge.

As a debut writer/director, Carl Tibbetts' "Retreat" is a well made psychological thriller with steady increase in pacing that generates an atmosphere going from brooding to disturbing. Only accessible by ferry, the story unfolds on a little island off the coast of Scotland where a married but childless couple rents a rustic cottage. Soon after their arrival on the island, it is evident that Kate and Martin have seen happier times. A journalist, Kate is withdrawn but reveals through her writing that a previous miscarriage has caused a rift in their relationship. In an effort to rekindle their marriage, Martin tries to put the past behind, hoping happy memories of their previous stay on the island will seal their marital wounds once and for all. But as it seems, things get from bad to worse when their only contact with the mainland – a CB radio – malfunctions, and the cottage's power generator chokes out. Amongst all this, an injured soldier arrives on the island and amplifies their predicament, stating that an air-borne virus is rapidly sweeping across Europe. Claiming the outbreak to be extremely lethal, Jack proceeds to board-up the cottage from the inside, even as it dawns on Kate and Martin that their strange guest is becoming increasingly hostile. Although widely comparable to the Nicole Kidman-Sam Neill thriller "Dead Calm", Tibbetts' work here is mostly captivating, relying heavily on portrayals from Thandie Newton and Cillian Murphy as the couple, and Jamie Bell as the antagonistic intruder. As such, acting is the pivotal structure steadily holding up the plot build-up. Bell is particularly impressive as an alpha male that goes on to challenge Martin's manhood right before his wife. As soon as Bell's character enters, we know the premise calls for psychological confrontation as two men try to outsmart each other. Add to that a fragile and hurting woman in between, and the stage is set for a tension built battle for survival. Tibbetts' screenplay also affords equal opportunity to Newton and Murphy as they each share moments of power in trying to outsmart Bell's Jack. This is evident that although there is a growing wedge in their relationship, previous problems diminish in size when faced with what they must now do to protect each other and their marriage. With a good part of the plot carried out within the confines of the cottage, Tibbetts succeeds in holding on to the viewer's attention despite the fact that single locale films can become boring. Besides the aforementioned acting, what works for Tibbetts is the premise – a broken married couple alone on an island, faced with a life threatening situation where they are forced to reconcile their past, or die trying. With all the twists and turns in the second half, Tibbetts gives hope to the audience while simultaneously tightening the noose around Kate and Martin. This alone reduces viewer predictability while also giving the ending a disturbing albeit open-ended finish. Personally, I was hoping for a satisfying ending, but as it seems, Tibbetts may have had other things in mind like connecting the viewer with his characters and then brutally severing that connection; its like saying hope is as useful as a missed opportunity. All things considered, this movie is a decent attempt for a film maker writing and directing his first movie. For a thriller, plot twisters keep gnawing at the nape of your neck, with some good acting swelling said plot with tense moments. Curiously, the ending may disappoint some viewers, especially those who are optimistic about feel-good endings.

Retreat is a disappointing movie about a couple and a wounded soldier they found and take to their cottage on a remote, forsaken island. The soldier tells them that a contagious disease spread out in the rest of the world, killing everyone, and that they need to barricade the cottage and stay in it to be safe. The tension between the couple and the soldier steadily increases, since they start to have serious doubts about his story and the disease. They want to leave but he doesn't let them. From then on they try to fight him to get free. In the end you find out that he actually told a half-truth. He was sick, but the disease was within him. He wanted to keep them in the house to avoid it from spreading more. After the husband got the lethal disease and started dying his wife kills the soldier and then is killed by the army that has finally found the location of their missing soldier, who they used as a guinea pig. The movie leaves a bitter aftertaste and the conclusion that you just wasted a lot of time. There are barely any good moments and the actions they perform are not conclusive most of the time. For example: The wive would play all tough and fight the soldier to the death sometimes while fall down crying like a baby in other occasions. It's like she couldn't decide which role she wanted to play and I got that impression from the soldier a few times as well. Anyway... as long as you don't want to see a movie about 3 people fighting at each other in the most pitiful way, do yourself a favour and avoid Retreat. 3/10

Retreat could have been a good movie if the director had had his eyes open. Since the general plot has been dissected numerous times by other reviewers, I won't waste your time by repeating the story all over again. However, either the director thinks his potential audience are all a bit "slow" (to say the least) or HE is a bit slow himself. Why do I say this? Well, even though Martin and Kate are going through a small setback, surely that is no reason why, when they find an unconscious injured man on their island retreat, they shouldn't, at the very least, clean him up and dress his wounds. In such an environment there would be no doubt that their cottage would have been well-equipped with first-aid provisions yet all they appear to have done is drag the poor guy into the house and dump him on a sofa and then just sit and look at him! NO ONE would do that no matter how disturbed they were! The guy still has streaks of blood all down his face from open wounds to his head! Gee! I would sure hate to get shipwrecked on an island where they were the only occupants! Then, when he does come around, the stranger tells them what could well have been a true story albeit somewhat bizarre. But then, when he says that the virus is airborne and their house must be sealed up, no one thinks to ask what they are all going to breathe once it is and then, when he convinces Martin and Kate to actually decimate the building and board up the doors and windows, there are enough gaps between the boards for a vampire bat to fly through - let alone a minute virus - never mind the chimney! The premise of the story is plausible but its handling is pathetic! The fact that Martin and Kate actually bought Jack's story is an insult to the intelligence. I watched Retreat to the bitter end because I love Thandie Newton (and so the ending didn't please me one bit!) With a couple of exceptions, Cillian Murphy's character, Martin, was pretty lame. For example, he tells his gorgeous wife that he doesn't know what to do to ease her pain. How about giving her a great big loving hug for starters? There's poor Thandie (sorry, Kate) crying out to just be loved and all he can say is that he doesn't know what to do! I could go on but what's the point? Maybe another effort will be made with the story sometime in the future with better results. You know, I think that it should be mandatory for film directors to take basic courses in psychology so that, at least, their "normal" characters (as opposed to psychopaths who they can make as weird as they like) will behave like normal people do behave and not totally irrationally!

This film bears more than few similarities to another really bad film "Right at Your Door", which should send some potential viewers running from it. The characters are bland, the "plot twist" at the end was telegraphed from the beginning, none of it makes any sense whatsoever. What a waste of a talented cast this film was. Three incredible actors in Cillian Murphy, Thandie Newton and Jamie Bell are completely wasted in this tripe. As soon as Jamie Bell arrives in the film and starts barricading up the house without so much as any protest from Murphy's and Newton's characters I knew the film was going to be dreadful. The ambition of building tension is failed and the dynamics between the characters is completely screwed up, although Jamie Bell is very menacing, as the pretense is complete balls. Do not waste your time on this film, it is utter drivel.

If you watch the trailer of Retreat, you watch 75% of the movie. The movie spends the first twenty minutes telling the story of a young couple Martin (Murphy) and Kate (Newton). They are experiencing some marital problems, so they retreat to this isolated island in hope to save their marriage. Then Jamie Bell's character Jack - a unconscious stranger covered with blood - finally appears, just as you see in the trailer. However, when I see Jack starts to bar the house when he wakes up the next day, I shake my head. My question is: how could the couple be that stupid to let a 5'7" lunatic do things like that? Eventually, Jack makes a revelation. By the time, it doesn't matter if he is telling the truth or not. In my opinion, Retreat suffers from a weak plot and the poor direction of a first-time director. It is supposed to be a thriller, but there is not enough suspense to keep the audience engaged throughout the ninety minutes. In fact, I wonder how can he drag the movie for that long. There is not much happening on the screen to keep the viewers occupied, and the so-called twist in the end feels flat. The three main cast members did an okay job. However, the script doesn't provide enough room for character development. I don't learn enough about the characters to feel sympathy for them. There is no chemistry among the three characters. However, I feel Jamie Bell might be the one who enjoyed filming this movie most. Playing a lunatic must be fun. It also allows him to show off his toned body, although the shirtless scene is nothing more than a fan service. Retreat only has four characters with lines. The complete cast consists of no more than six people. Visually, it is impaired by its low budget. I am not saying we need hundreds of extras, big explosions, adrenaline filled car chase sequences or things like that. But it needs some visual elements to help to build the suspense the movie desperately needs. The music and sound effects are effective though. I don't know how did the director get actors like Murphy, Newton and Bell on board. Although the three actors are not A-listers, they must have read better scripts. Or, maybe the original script has some potential, but the final product becomes a disaster at the hand of an inexperienced director.

I love these actors and I think the script was good. So what went wrong? The music and delivery of the story for a start. Overly dramatic struggling for a Polanski vibe, and this movie's failing perhaps shows just how gifted Polanski can be in traveling that fine line between drama, and melodrama. Thandie Newton is one of my favorite actors but her character was so unlikable in this I had difficulty giving her the love she deserves, and although she did have to be a jerk for the plot to work the balance was tipped too far over, and even I found it hard to empathize with her. We never really got to understand her's and Cillian Murphy's back story and I certainly don't mind not being spoon feed every detail but the vagueness of it all meant we just didn't really care that much about them. All of that has to come down to one role I think, and that has to be the director. Maybe he wasn't ready for his first movie, took on too many roles, bit off more than he could chew,... at the end of the day this movie fails and it fails when it could have been a little master piece. There really was something more than we got with the missteps of this movie. It's a shame really. I hope he can do better on the next one.

I had pretty high expectations for Retreat because: A. I'm a big fan of both Thandie Newton and Cillian Murphy. and... B. I like thrillers in general, and it's been a while since I've seen a good one. And does it live up to those expectations? Not particularly. It's certainly a tense movie, with a menacing stranger showing up at the remote island vacation cottage of a couple, bringing with him frightening tales of a global pandemic. They mustn't leave and they must seal themselves away inside the cottage to avoid the certain death that outside contact and infection brings... according to him. But, is he telling the truth? Is the threat really the world outside, or the man in their home? There's a twist or turn near the end that keeps Retreat from being strictly as predictable as my description might have lead you to believe, but whether that makes the story any better is up for debate. Personally, I found it to be somewhat underwhelming once it was all revealed. Retreat does keep you guessing about what to believe, to a certain extent, but I can't say that I "enjoyed" watching the movie. The characters are all flaws and bad decisions, with no real reason to invest in them and hope they survive whatever threat, be it viral or human, that may endanger them. The acting is nothing special,  thanks to a pretty pedestrian script that lacks any semblance of nuance. The tragedy that brings the couple to the cottage has no real relevance to the story, which makes it nothing more than pointless backstory. Their history is brought up in careful detail, only to never lead anywhere. Murphy's character is written to be such a weak and passive man that it borders on caricature and Newton's has two emotions, unhappy and afraid (though she still manages to be absolutely beautiful). Jamie Bell goes overboard on the menace and danger, when some ambiguity would have served both the character and story much better. This was definitely a flawed experience for me. I didn't dislike the movie, and as I said, it can be quite tense at times, but it just seemed off in several ways. The word "underwhelming" comes to mind.

Despite the presence of the wonderful Cillian this movie was an absolute disaster. The wife irritated me from the very first scenes and she never got any more sympathetic. The husband was weak & pathetic but I did have some liking for him until he gave the lunatic the gun. There was absolutely no sense in that scene - why would he believe there were people "out there" when he hadn't seen any? And even if he believed it, why give the crazy dude the gun? Why not just keep it yourself? And on that subject, why did the crazy guy keep giving the axe to the husband if he was supposed to be the macho army bloke surely HE'D want the axe and be the one doing the main defending. Things went from bad to worse when we were stuck with long sessions of people talking about themselves and relationship woes while nothing else happened and boredom set in with a vengeance. There was almost no action or suspense or anything interesting happening in this movie at all, at any point. Very disappointing. There really isn't anything to recommend this movie for, not even Cillian, unless you're the kind of person who just likes to watch a whole film about people being tense and whiney with each other while one of them messes with the other two people's heads.