Shattered (2007)

A perfect family's dynamic is ruined by a kidnapper's brutally efficient plot.

Director:

Mike Barker

Writer:

William Morrissey

Stars:

Pierce Brosnan, Maria Bello, Gerard Butler

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Pierce Brosnan	...	Tom Ryan
Maria Bello	...	Abby Randall
Gerard Butler	...	Neil Randall
Emma Karwandy	...	Sophie Randall
Claudette Mink	...	Judy Ryan
Desiree Zurowski	...	Helen Schriver
Nicholas Lea	...	Jerry Crane
Peter Keleghan	...	Karl Granger
Samantha Ferris	...	Diane
Malcolm Stewart	...	Dave Carver
Callum Keith Rennie	...	Det. McGill
Dustin Milligan	...	Matt Ryan
Julie Patzwald	...	Female Teller
Jason McKinnon	...	French Waiter
Kurt Evans	...	Maitre D'

Storyline

The happily-married couple of Neil and Abby Randall have worked very hard to create a healthy and safe bubble for themselves and their only daughter, Sophie. However, their seemingly idyllic life will start crumbling into pieces when, out of the blue, the determined and methodical gunman, Tom Ryan, holds them captive, as his cold-blooded accomplice uses Sophie for leverage. Now, Abby and Neil have no other choice but to do Tom's bidding if they want to keep their child alive--and with every task they successfully perform--they see a piece of their orderly life being robbed from them. But, why is this perfect stranger bent on destroying three innocents?

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Plot Keywords:

mysterious stranger | female removes her clothes | ordered to strip | black panties | forced to strip | 

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Taglines:

No one knows how far they can go... until they are pushed.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some language and violence

Details

Country:

UK Canada USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 August 2007 (Israel)

Also Known As:

Shattered

Filming Locations:

BC Place, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$20,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$7,432,482, 6 July 2008

Company Credits

Production Co:

Icon Productions, Irish DreamTime, Infinity Features Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min 98 min (European Film Market)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

"Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel" is a quotation - sometimes misquoted with "on" in place of "upon" - from Alexander Pope's "Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot" of January 1735. The line has entered common use and has become associated with more recent figures.

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Goofs

As Neil and Abby prepare to get out the car to go into the bank, you hear Tom say ' ... you'll never see your daughter again' but as the camera cuts to Tom, his lips do not move on the last words of that sentence.

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Quotes

Tom Ryan: Never pick a fight with someone who's got nothing to lose.

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Connections

Remade as Cocktail (2010)

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Soundtracks

I'll Take Care of You
Written by Brook Benton
Performed by Irma Thomas
Published by Famous Music Publishing Company Ltd.
Courtesy of Rounder Records. www.rounder.com

User Reviews

Can one spoil the plot if the plot's spoiled to begin with (read with caution)

This movie is the equivalent of shattering an already broken mirror. We are introduced to the happy, functioning family: Father's successful and climbing the corporate ladder in the advertising industry, while mom stays at home and takes care of cute-as-a-cupcake daughter. All is well...

(if you are really intent on going through the dissatisfaction of watching this movie and are as thick as brick, you shouldn't read any further)

...But right from the start we see father weaseling his way to the top, egotistically snatching away his colleagues' well deserved moment to shine from under their noses. We see father exchange an all too obvious glance with his secretary. We see mom holding a camera and longingly looking at photos she once took. We can overhear a conversation between mom and dad's secretary that seems casual, but carries the promise of becoming significant later on in the movie all too obviously.

If the writer or director - I'm guessing these are directorial decisions - had done a better job at concealing the cracks in the foundation of the perfect family-life facade in the beginning, maybe the shattered dreams at the end would have packed a slightly bigger punch. But half way into the movie we give up on the chance of this becoming anything remotely worth wile. And we masochistically watch the plot unfolding in more and more implausible ways, as the characters (read: plot-devices) propel it to its breathtakingly uninteresting, and actually insulting ending. Ultimately the only thing this movie shatters, is the audience's hope of seeing an intelligent and entertaining movie.