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Accident (2017)
Well Go USA
Blu-ray Disc Released: 3/19/2019
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Review by Mike Long, Posted on 3/25/2019
We’ve all seen movies which are over-written. These films have an abundance of characters and sub-plots, making them murky and difficult to follow. They deserve some sort of recognition for attempting to squeeze in as much entertainment as possible, but they often bite off more than they can chew. But, what about the movies at the other end of the spectrum. Some films contain a central premise which can be summed up in a few words, and these movies usually have a small number of characters. Therefore, it’s up to the actors and director to stretch this idea and creating a movie which holds the viewers interest. Accident certainly fits this description. Can it make something out of nothing?
Jess (Stephanie Schildknecht) and Caroline (Roxanne Hayward) are excited about attending a music festival. However, instead of acquiring bus tickets as she was supposed to, Caroline has arranged for the pair to ride with some friends…who never show up. Now stranded, the two begin to hitchhike, where they are picked up by Fred (Tyrone Keogh) and Thomas (Keenan Arrison), who are driving a fancy car. Everyone’s plans become derailed when the car runs off of the road and the travelers are trapped inside. Will they be able to get out or will someone find the wreck?
For his feature-film debut, Writer/Director Dan Tondowski has played things relatively safe with Accident, as the bulk of the film comes across like a play which occurs within one set. Save for the opening and a few flashbacks, about 85% of the movie takes place in the wrecked car or the area just around it. Once this almost Hitchcockian idea is put into place, the movie then focuses on the characters and their predicament inside and immediately outside of the car. With this, Tondowski has painted himself into a narrative corner, as there is only so much which can be done with this premise. Having said that, he does attempt to milk the idea to an extent. The characters must contend with injuries and threats from outside of the car. The camera moves around, choosing vantage points from inside and outside of the vehicle.
However, Tondowski makes some serious rookie mistakes as well. For starters, the characters not only vastly underwritten, they aren’t very likeable. Fred and Thomas turn out to be less-then-desirable human beings, and the audience can’t help but blame Caroline for getting Jess into this predicament. As for Jess, she’s supposed to be stereotypical relatable character, but she’s just as vapid as everyone else. Not only do the characters do some dumb things to get them into their desperate situation, once the accident occurs, they lose all sense of logic. It’s implied that the car’s windows are reinforced, so everyone tries to hit them with their hands. No one attempts to kick out the windows. That would have been my first instinct. (No one ever tries to kick their way out of locked room in movies either. Kicking his highly underrated.) I guess that if they had kicked their way out of the car, it would have been a much shorter movie, but, whatever. In the third act, Tondowski decides to give his very simple premise a twist, which simply falls flat. If this idea had been introduced earlier in the film, it could have added more tension to the story, but coming in late like it does literally makes it seem like something which was made up at the last minute.
Accident takes some of the ideas found in classic siege movies and places them inside of a wrecked car. There are some interesting ideas here and a certain sense of suspense, but the lack of logic and the fact that we don’t care about these characters truly hurts the movie. The movie doesn’t look like a low-budget film and the actors seem game, but it never rises above a sense of mediocrity. And the coda certainly doesn’t help. The movie isn’t a complete disaster, but I can’t recommend that you go out of your way to watch it.
Accident also never explains what happened to the other car on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Well Go USA. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 25 Mbps. The image is sharp and clear, showing no overt grain and or defects from the source materials. The colors look very good, and the image is never overly bright or dark, especially given the fact that the bulk of the film takes place at night. The level of detail is good and the image features a nice amount of depth. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 2.3 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. There are certainly some bright spots here, most notably during the wreck, which features some nice surround sound and subwoofer effects. Once in the car, the stereo effects help to create a sense of space.
The lone extra on the Accident Blu-ray Disc is a TRAILER for the film.
Review Copyright 2019 by Mike Long