Movie Review—10 Cloverfield Lane

10 Cloverfield Lane

by Peter J. O’Connell

10 Cloverfield Lane. Released: March 2016. Runtime: 103 mins. MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic material, including frightening sequences of threat, with some violence and brief language.

10 Cloverfield Lane is an interesting place to visit (for 103 minutes in a movie theatre), but you wouldn’t want to live there, or maybe . . . .

Lately, movies seem to be “pairing up.” That is, two films circulating at about the same time have overarching themes or situations that link them. For example: Carol and Brooklyn are “across the lines” love stories set in NYC in the 1950s; 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi and The Finest Hours celebrate patriotism and heroism in a crisis; In the Heart of the Sea and The Finest Hours are fact-based maritime tales; Trumbo and Hail, Caesar! are set in Hollywood’s Golden Age. Now 10 Cloverfield Lane joins the recent and acclaimed Room as a story of an attractive young woman held in a confined space by a man definitely capable of violence.

In 10 Cloverfield Lane, Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a Louisiana woman, feels that she is not capable of handling her relationship with her boyfriend, so she packs some things and drives away with no clear destination in mind. At night in a rural area, she is forced off the road by a truck and loses consciousness in the crash. Days later she awakens to find herself held in an underground bunker presided over by an older man named Howard (John Goodman).

Howard tells Michelle that terrible events have taken place above ground while she was unconscious and that the atmosphere up there is unsafe. He doesn’t make clear whether the events are attacks by enemy nations, invasion by space aliens, nuclear and/or chemical pollution, or plagues of various kinds. The doomsday prepper says that he is proud of his foresight in building the bunker before these dark developments. He is wise, he says, not crazy. “Crazy is building your ark after the flood has already come.”

With no knowledge of what really lies above, Michelle questions what’s true and what’s not—but she definitely does not trust Howard, even though he claims to be protecting her. She makes several dramatic attempts to escape. Some of them are with the aid of Emmett (John Gallagher, Jr.), a young man who says that he helped build the bunker and fled into it when he saw a white flash.

After various attempts at escape and seeing from inside the bunker a deformed woman outside it, Michelle decides to play along with Howard’s wish that the three become like a family. They try to put together puzzles (umm . . .), play cards and parlor games, and listen to music from Howard’s jukebox. (Seldom has “I Think We’re Alone Now” sounded less bubble-gummy!) Increasingly, Howard treats Michelle as if she were his daughter, Megan, who, he says, was spirited away by her mother.

Some violent developments and shocking discoveries lead Michelle and Emmett to formulate their most elaborate escape plan. As the plan unfolds, even more violent developments and shocking discoveries take place.

10 Cloverfield Lane (directed by Dan Trachtenberg) is a terrific thriller, featuring a memorable performance by John Goodman as Howard. Always a popular and admired actor, Goodman here shows himself to be an absolute master of his craft, employing expression, gesture, movement, tone of voice--everything—to create a character who comes across as simultaneously a benign patriarch and a malign predator. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is also excellent as a young woman turning desperation into a faith in her own ability to struggle and survive. And John Gallagher, Jr., is quite competent in his role. Stop by 10 Cloverfield Lane for those 103 minutes!

“Footnote” to the film: J. J. Abrams, a co-producer of 10 Cloverfield Lane, is a major figure in the world of action/horror/science-fiction movies. In 2008 Abrams produced Cloverfield, a well-regarded monster movie set in New York City and featuring the then-fashionable “found footage” technique. Film fans have been interested in ferreting out any connections between Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane. Apparently, there are some, but they are minimal. The main connection seems to be one of “tone,” in much the same way that the stories of such classic TV anthology series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Twilight Zone and Tales From the Dark Side were connected. Stay tuned!