I am not sure what influences were coming in when this film was written and delivered, however it certainly has a feel for those moments in a Tarantino film where an innocuous dialogue scene in a single location is laced with tension and edge. Examples of this can be seen in Inglorious Bastards, True Romance, Reservoir Dogs, and others. In the case of Rage we have the film essentially be liked this, and even with a discussion over the reduced impact of swearing – a discussion which is both innocent but yet laced with aggressive language – so you can see what they were aiming for with this content.
In theory the tension in the room should build up nicely, leading to Trevor being pushed just that bit too far, resulting in the pressure being relieved in the film and the viewer in a very dramatic way. The problem is, the film really doesn't manage to create that sense of tension that it was clearly trying to make. Visually the black and white cinematography, and the lack of any sort of detail in the dark room, does lend itself to this approach, but there is a directness in the delivery, a lack of atmosphere that makes it feel less than it should. Likewise the dialogue and the performances are not laced with tension or nuance; they are both still pretty decent, but just don't have that sense of tension in the detail that the film needed.
Decent try, but with the core concept not working, it is hard to avoid the fact that it really works only at a much lower level than it needed to.
In theory the tension in the room should build up nicely, leading to Trevor being pushed just that bit too far, resulting in the pressure being relieved in the film and the viewer in a very dramatic way. The problem is, the film really doesn't manage to create that sense of tension that it was clearly trying to make. Visually the black and white cinematography, and the lack of any sort of detail in the dark room, does lend itself to this approach, but there is a directness in the delivery, a lack of atmosphere that makes it feel less than it should. Likewise the dialogue and the performances are not laced with tension or nuance; they are both still pretty decent, but just don't have that sense of tension in the detail that the film needed.
Decent try, but with the core concept not working, it is hard to avoid the fact that it really works only at a much lower level than it needed to.