FORMAT: DIGITAL DOWNLOAD | RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 31ST
‘Bottle movies’ are films that take place almost entirely in a single location. This means the filmmaker must be skillful enough to keep the audience interested for over ninety minutes with very limited resources. It’s no accident the best examples of bottle movies come from the likes of Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs), Alfred Hitchcock (Rope) and Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men). It’s no amateur’s business.
Director Brendan Walsh (Nurse Jackie) doesn’t quite succeed at sustaining the tension, but at least can keep you watching (if for no other reason than to yell at the leads about everything they’re doing wrong).
The movie opens with an American couple trapped in their vehicle, buried in the snow, in a seldom-used Norwegian highway. The wife, Naomi (Genesis Rodríguez), is a novelist on tour who blames her husband for the jam they’re in. The husband, Matt (Vincent Piazza), is an overly cautious individual who’s a notch resentful of his wife’s success. There’s an added difficulty to their predicament: Naomi is eight months pregnant. The initial strategy is to wait it out. They have water, warmth and a modicum of food. But as days go by, the approach becomes unsustainable.
Allegedly inspired by real events, Centigrade portrays some decidedly uncinematic aspects of the ordeal, like tedium, yet it doesn’t go as far as to become unsavoury. The characters are not particularly compelling and their problems are pedestrian and unoriginal. While you want them to survive, you know you’ll be fine either way.
What’s left? The cinematography and the performances. The car’s deterioration is well-calibrated and the camera finds enough angles to make the vehicle a world of its own. The sense of claustrophobia is palpable. The histrionically gifted Vincent Piazza (of Boardwalk Empire fame) is very watchable, even when delivering the most perfunctory dialogue. The same can’t be said of Genesis Rodríguez (Man on a Ledge), who’s not as skillful and is further hindered by the many layers of clothes she’s under. In short, Centigrade is competently made, but lacks the extra oomph to make a mark. If nothing else, it will make you feel better about your own self-isolation.
