What is really reality at ‘10 Cloverfield Lane’?

BY

J.J. Abrams and his “Bad Robot Productions” are at it again. Eight years ago, they lit up the Internet with “Coverfield,” a found-footage shaky-cam sci-fi flick about young adults sharing a close encounter of the worst kind in mid-town Manhattan. But monsters come in many forms. Abrams says “10 Cloverfield Lane” is the “spiritual follow-on,” but does not share the same characters, storyline or location of the original.

Instead of dozens of people running amok in New York, this is essentially a three-person play with minimal action, set mainly in a single room in rural Louisiana. Made for a paltry $5 million, it’s better written, acted and directed than the original. In his feature directorial debut, Dan Trachtenberg summons his inner Hitchcock at every shadowy turn.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead stars as Michelle, a young woman who leaves her fiancé (voice of Bradley Cooper). On a lonely road, her car is run off the road. Waking up in an underground shelter in shackles, her “captor/rescuer” is Howard (John Goodman), a radical survivalist, who claims a global catastrophe is forcing them to stay underground together for the next few years until the air dissipates and threat eradicated. Uh-huh.

The questions are if Howard is telling the truth about this calamity, of which he cannot prove, or if he is some deviant slob keeping her captive for his perverted pleasure? Or, is he genuinely sincere, but terribly mistaken?

Either way, Howard demands Michelle to stay and forbids her from making her own choices. When she warns her boyfriend is trying to find her, Howard coolly states, “I’m sorry, but no one’s looking for you.”

Also in that fully equipped shelter is Emmett (Tony winner John Gallagher Jr.), a young man who has almost beat down the door to escape the cataclysm, of which he can’t fully describe either. The situation is intense, perilous and disturbing. Whatever similarities, don’t mistake this for Brendan Fraser’s comical “Blast from the Past” (1999).

Michelle is terrified and completely distraught, while Howard’s behavior radically flips from sympathetic to scholarly to terrifying. He is a strict disciplinarian. But, maybe that’s required for such dire circumstances. Or, is this guy just a precarious megalomaniac?

Emmett whispers to Michelle that Howard has a black belt in conspiracy theories. But Howard excuses his obsession, “Crazy is building your ark after the flood comes.”

Each time you think you know where the story is going, the screenplay, originally titled “The Cellar,” by Josh Campbell, Matthew Stuecken and Damien Chazelle, keeps us guessing and takes us in a different direction. The taut script and masterful acting not only keeps your attention, but also keeps the audience on the edge of its seats.

Winstead is an accomplished actor whose guarded approach with wild-eyed desperation carries this simple story for the duration. She was the producers’ only choice for the lead role of Michelle. Winstead is equal to the task of sparring with Goodman, who is once again at the top of his game. Sure, the “prepper” is nuts, but to what degree?

There are very few special effects in this dark, but clever nightmare. Each time we think we have this suspenseful mystery figured out, a new element is introduced with just enough suspicion and lack of clarity to keep us guessing again; especially when we try to integrate it with whatever else we know (or don’t know).

“10 Cloverfield Lane” is 103 minutes and rated PG-13 for thematic material, frightening sequences of threat with violence, and brief language. The original was an inventive sci-fi feature, but this follow-on is an unnerving psychological thriller featuring raw emotional vulnerability. The audience is fully engaged and never sure who or what to believe.

You may or may not appreciate the conclusion, but it will keep you guessing up to the end. Staying alive in a bunker for years with people you don’t want to be with begs the question, “Where is the fine line between living and simply existing?” Or, as said in “Catch-22” (1970), “Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not after you.”

Ron’s Rating: B+   Leigh’s Rating: B