"No Exit" Review

Platform: Hulu

Release Date: February 25, 2022

...but again, the narrative was a lot more fun than it had a right to be.

Committed to a drug rehab program, Darby (Havana Rose) receives the unfortunate news that her mother is undergoing emergency surgery for a brain anuerism. Even though she is warned to stay away by her estranged sister, she finds a way to escape her poorly secured facility. This is a movie that relied on the moving of its mystery narrative of the middle act and less on the building of character depth. Thus, this focus on Darby's character and her disinterest in drug treatment leads to a slow and dulled opening. Outside of the character's motivation to leave, there is nothing major to come out of the first 20 or so minutes. Instead, the audience is treated to the comedy of a highly unsecured residential treatment facility. As Darby comically makes her way out of the exit door with ease, the conveniences of her escape also help maintain a focus on Darby's journey rather than putting too much detail into the meaningless plot effort of her escape. Nevertheless, the movie's opening leaves a lot to be desired, though not bland enough to completely eliminate the promise of something more.

A successful hot-wiring later and on the road to her mother, Darby finds herself in the middle of a blooming blizzard and is directed to a nearby visitors center until the roads reopen. There, she finds herself amongst a group of others stranded in the visitors center: married couple Ed and Sandi (Dennis Haysbert and Dale Dickey), Ash (Danny Ramirez), and Lars (David Rysdal). To reiterate, this movie is not written with its characters in mind, so the introduction to this cast is left mostly to the character cliches they meet. The married couple, once sensible and avoidant while the other is tough and assertive, the strange outcast who immediately draw suspicions, and a seemingly normal individual with whom our main character can develop trust. Being left without much character depth becomes a double-edged sword for the story, as it helps deepen the mystery with its lack of details but also does not give much for the audience to play with in regards to suspicions. Having a young, female character stuck in this strange situation with a number of unknowns does begin to build intrigue to where the story is going. There is a sense of vulnerability in Darby, however slight, from her difficulties with drugs and in dealing with her mother's situation that eventually endears her to the audience.

The movie really starts to play with its strengths when Darby searches for a signal outside and discovers that a van belonging to one of the strangers is housing a tied up girl. Up to this point, the movie had no real stakes and this finally opens the door for tension and narrative flow. With the characters finally serving a purpose, the story falls into place as Darby begins a one-woman mission to determine who the kidnapper is without tipping them off to her knowledge. Where the movie seeks to set itself apart is in an early reveal that seemingly directs the movie towards more of a pure thriller than a whodunnit. In doing so, expectations are pleasantly shattered as Darby's attempts to build trust results in further reveals that build a much more complicated story than it once seemed we were getting. As the narrative builds on the tale of Jay, the kidnapped girl, the small escalations provide a pleasing and simple flow to the movie. It would have been to the film's detriment if the writing attempted to produce some complicated mind-bending conspiracy.

An interesting decision was made to provide a specific piece of backstory to Jay, who through most of the movie, solely plays the innocent victim. While her victimization does not change, the movie does provide a bit of backstory that does make you take a second glance at her. For a movie that was extremely light on character depth, it was off-putting to share information that is to the victim's detriment. Once all is revealed and Darby fights to save Jay and herself, the movie does start to suffer from a clunky pacing and run of the mill conclusion. Perhaps it was unfair to have expected more from the movie considering its first act and overall premise were kept relatively simple. Even the production design was kept to a bare minimum with the entire movie taking place in only two settings. So anything more than simple seems like asking too much, but again, the narrative was a lot more fun than it had a right to be.

The final act is not unsatisfying in the eventual conclusion, though the very final scene made little impact and continued a subplot that was given no weight. Rather, character moments become very cheesy, escapes were written with very little thought, and a big sequence felt more appropriate in a “Home Alone” movie than this one. Still, there was a dumb fun to it that I could not help but enjoy. Plus, it provided one of the best justifications ever given for using cocaine.

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RATING: 🚫 🚫 🚫 / 5

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