Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

P2 (2007)

Director: Franck Khalfoun

Time Out rating

Average user rating

1 review

Movie review

From Time Out London

On Christmas Eve, a woman is drugged, dressed in sexy clothes and chased around an underground car park by a creepy security guard. French filmmakers Alexandre Aja and Grégory Levasseur, here acting as producers and writers for debut director Franck Khalfoun, continue to remodel the ’70s ‘slasher’ movie. Sadly, compared to ‘Switchblade Romance’ and ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ this is retrograde stuff, with only a few technological updates to distinguish it from its disreputable progenitors.

Lonely car park attendant Thomas (Wes Bentley) has been secretly stalking workaholic business executive Angela Bridges (Rachel Nichols), using the building’s CCTV cameras to keep a loving, watchful eye on her unhappy life. What she needs, he has concluded, is an intimate dinner for two in his tiny, festively decorated office. Angela, however, is late for a family dinner and mightily pissed off. Unfortunately, she’s chained to her chair, guarded by a vicious Rottweiler and, even when she frees herself, trapped in an unfamiliar subterranean environment.

The false equation used in slasher moves is that the sexualised humiliation of the hapless female is somehow ‘justified’ by the vengeful scenes in which she eventually turns the tables on her captor. And there’s no denying the primitive pleasure one derives from seeing Angela take on Thomas and his attack dog with her smart mind, a fire axe and an improvised flame-thrower. Even so, the early scenes leave a nasty taste in the mouth and one could drive a BMW through the myriad plot holes. Also, ‘American Beauty’ star Bentley’s actorly attempts to elicit sympathy for the misguided Thomas conflict with the sadistic manner of his inevitable dispatch.

Author: Nigel Floyd

Time Out London Issue 1967: May 2 - 9, 2008

Bookmark

User reviews of this film

usman khawaja said...

Posted on May 07 2008 14:57 i remain dubious as to the ultimate intentions of the makers so inspired by the wyler classic-COLLECTOR,while fowles women are strong,analytical conniving females ,here we have a really naive woman of the world ,a corporate lawyer who has no intuitions or even manipulative skills akin to her profession ,she even fails to allure or convince a man who is obviously smitten with her and she could easily have cured him instead of turning this into an orgy of blood hammering-a man crushed against the wall by a vehicle because he made a sexual innuendo to miss muffet who the spider loves.
the mean spider here is the charming wes and he is the only reason this movie remains afloat ,his character is intriguing as he is initially a lonely man ,who is wanting some intimacy on x-mas eve ,he then becomes a moralist with fatal correctional behaviour and an executioner ,even that was comprehensible -but the finale was a travesty of this rather disntinctive psychopath as the tables are turned and a rather interesting view of sexuality,loneliness,pathological amour and the psychological warfare in a vacant ,subterranaean parking lot becomes just an average horror.
at times i empathised with the man who is misguided but still is trying to stem out some social norms we have adopted as acceptable,like sexual harassment at work ,adultery as a refined pleasure and the ignominious carparks that are possibly teugliest creations of modern era ,anyone working that environment should have licence to indulge themselves as a compensation ,wes as tom is thus a very empathic and truthful character,he cannot be ignored whether you like him or hate him,
the derived product still is not the venerable tribute to COLLECTOR and it is sadly lacking SAMANTHA EGGARS great talents -is tere a british actress today to equal her?
i got irritated as the fine drama between 2 individuals started accumulating multiple obligatory corpses with the final nail being the gory stabbing of a dog ,it was neither amusing nor necessary ,and then it became just a parody ,
despite an almost artistic ,hitchcokian first half ,it was a shame this movie was such a tentavive endeavour as it could have been a shining, but when you have a hysterical woman being deluged in an elevator in a parking lot -it's rather difficult to keep a staight face .
usman khawaja
- jbz7879

Report as inappropriate