No Right Turn (2009)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

David Noel Bourke

Writer:

David Noel Bourke (writer)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Part Fantasy. Part Mystery. All Pulp!

Plot:

A haunting fairy-tale thriller set between snowy landscapes and a neon city. |

Plot Keywords:

Betrayal | Murder | Revenge

Cast

Sira Stampe	...	Monella
Laura Bach	...	Nina
Tao Hildebrand	...	Johnny
Lars Lippert	...	Teddy
Sami Darr	...	Pedro
Flora Nasseri Jensen	...	Angel / Little Girl
Mads Koudal	...	Benny
Morten Steensgaard	...	Michael
Kim Sønderholm	...	Sleazy bar guy #1
Michael René Jensen	...	Sleazy bar guy #2
Gauthier Bricmont	...	Frankie the bartender
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Guri Simona Poulsen	...	SAndi - Hooker #2
David Sakurai	...	Waiter
Nick Søberg	...	Drunk bar guy
Ditte Søbrink	...	Cherri - Hooker #1

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

Denmark

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital (RCA Sound Recording)

Filming Locations:

Copenhagen, Denmark

Company:

Fridthjof Film

An L.A review

No Right Turn is a very, very strong sophomore effort from writer/director David Noel Bourke. Somewhere between a straight-faced American mystery flick and a Guy Ritchie dark comedy you would find films like No Right Turn. A great ensemble cast and rich, focused storytelling really drive the film as the twists and turns start to come faster and faster until the last thirty minutes when everything to come to a head.

No Right Turn introduces the audience to the cast through vignettes showing each doing something they are wont to do (whether they like it or not). Johnny (Tao Hildebrand) is a messenger boy for a drug dealer and is also addicted to coke. His wife, Nina (Laura Bach) makes her entrance pleasuring Teddy (Lars Lippert) as he watches her on television. Monella (Sira Stampe) has sunken into a great depression and has spread the ashes of her recently deceased mother into the cold, snowy ground. These four characters have had their shares of ups and downs, but each one wants to escape from their own personal hell, which sets themselves up on a crash course for one another. Lying, cheating, stealing, beating, threatening, raping, fornicating, drug using, and abusing are not beneath these four characters as they do what they have to do to get what they want. It seems that Johnny locked away a case in a lock box, and everyone wants what's inside.

The characters are extremely memorable in No Right Turn. Each one of the actors made their character stand out, and no two characters played out the same way. Tao Hildebrand was incredible as Johnny. From the beginning he plays the focal point of the film, and in many ways, it's because of him (his fault) that everyone gets together. His 'I don't care about anyone but me' attitude is what makes him so much fun to watch, but it also is what gets those closest to him in trouble as often as it happens. In one sequence he calls out a pair of men sitting at a bar and riles them up by belittling them and taking their film because he thought they were taking a picture of him. Not only does he come off as a jerk, but he sets up an event that will cause Nina to suffer. Ah, Laura Bach as Nina. So many faces so little time. This was one character that could have come off extremely cheesy, but Laura nailed it. Where Johnny is pretty much one-sided, in that he only cares about himself, the character of Nina plays the field from all sides. If Johnny is the catalyst, Nina is the one who brings the film to fruition. She's cold, calculating and viscous and played it off as extremely kind and considerate. Lars Lippert is the creepy writer, Teddy, and he is just that: extremely creepy. He wants nothing more than to be left alone (as shown by when Johnny delivers his drugs while he's trying to write), and he is definitely a thinking man's criminal as he plans out everything he does down to the smallest detail. Once again, I come back to how creepy he is (you'll know what I'm talking about when you watch the film). Finally, Sira Stampe is masterful as Monella, the shy, introverted young painter whose head is filled with thoughts of suicide. Out of all the characters, she is the one that the audience can sympathize with and really roots for. She seems to be the only one that gets caught up in the under world where the others live and doesn't have any motive for being there. She just wants to be left alone and you really hope for that.

Now that the characters are set up, the story can take over. One of the many cool things about No Right Turn is that the story starts off extremely fragmented. Everyone's doing their own thing, but they're all coming together at the same time (you won't realize it until much later in the movie when several 'ah-ha' moments pop up). Each character's personalities causes him or her to make decisions that truly move the story forward and no choice ever feels like it was thrown in just to make the film work. I go, once again, back to the part where Johnny threatens the two men at the bar and ends up setting up his wife to suffer. His decision to annoy the men, and leave his wife alone to continue to drink, may seem ridiculous to many of us, but it's perfectly within his character, and moves the main plot line forward as well as a subplot where his inability to think ahead actually works in his favor. Once things really start picking up it's pretty much a whirlwind of who's lying to whom and who's good and bad that leads to a very satisfying ending.

Overall, No Right Turn is an excellent film, and its originality is something we don't get very much anymore. That's right. A tight script, interesting characters, a twist ending and several dark and memorable locations make this a ride worth taking. Highly recommended.