Black Cab
A young couple who are going through a difficult head home in a cab. However the cab driver has ulterior motives with the couple, having recently met the woman on a previous trip.
Direction
Quite decent direction, with some unique camera angles and some good use of peripheral distortion at time. I liked the odd camera angles used – and found this to be some of the better parts of the film.
While there was ‘style’ in what was visually shown on screen – substance was poor in the narrative structure.
Cast/Characters
Nick Frost, normally known for his comedic abilities, plays Ian – the cabbie who takes the young couple hostage. He does a sound job, but he is felled by a bad script and premise.
Synnøve Karlsen plays Anne, who is pregnant with her boyfriends child. I found her performance almost wooden at times – and she was written quite poorly. I didn’t feel myself empathising for her at all throughout the film.
Other cast members either appear very briefly in the first few minutes, or are left unconscious throughout the entire proceedings.
Screenplay/Setting/Themes
With a blend of psychological thriller, and supernatural – it is done very poorly. Sorry Nick (who also co-wrote and produced).
The psychological aspect is done well, with Frost coming across quite impressively – and he is genuinely menacing at times. However as the story continues into the supernatural (a ghost woman lost her child in life and is searching for a child) it grows more complicated.
Some of the third act reveals are meaningless in the grand scheme of the film, and the film ends abruptly with a nonsensical and without most arcs being addressed, or finalised.
Overall
I watched this so you don’t have to. Even at 87m this was a slog to get through. Give it a miss. I’m being very generous with this score.
The whole supernatural element did not work (the ghost of Maybelle Hill, who wants a child, and Ian giving her Anne to stop it from taking his child) would have worked better if it was a separate story. The writers wanted two movies in one and this just did not work.
Give this one a miss.
1.5/5