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The beginning of John Hyams’ film, Alone, is captivating, featuring Jessica (Jules Willcox) as she leaves Portland, Oregon with her U-Haul hitching a trailer. Wherever those parts are, they are deep in the wilderness. As expected of movie protagonists, she appears to be on the run from trauma. Jessica’s father is skeptical since she left a day early to avoid verbal confrontations which makes sense her mother keeps calling her. When she finally answers her mother is whiny clarifying why they confrontational planned at all. Either way, she never reveals where she truly plans on going because, in the end, her plans get derailed.
You see, there is an insane killer roaming free. He is a medium-sized man who wears silly glasses and has a push-broom mustache. He seemed to me like a much older version of Ned Flanders from The Simpsons: one who has done many things that require repentance. You would think the filmmakers went for this rather Everyman look to divide attention from his crime, but the Man in the credits (Marc Menchaca) has not, at any point in time, acted anything but creepy. In his first face-to-face meeting with Jessica, he asks her where she is headed, speaks words a stranger should not, and indicates he saw the Jeep Grand Cherokee that nearly hit her while she was attempting to overtake him, several miles back. I hope Jeep got some good money for this kind of advertisement. They also should have gotten something for Men coming, because Jessica’s trailer, for some reason, gets a flat tire. Man appears, ready to beat her for some reason, drug her, and abduct her. Jessica wakes up in an empty basement room, very conveniently furnished with a beautiful beam of light coming in through the barred windows.
Until now, this movie has played out as a thrilling joker, and it almost achieves some level of intrigue when Man tells Jessica the story of what has led her to run away. In one of his petty shots, when she begs for her life, Man says, “Do you think that you are the first person who has done this?” This is the last time he will look scary, which is a pity because the movie is only a third done. I’m glad we are spared torture or any form of rape, and as it is, Jessica gets away without difficulty from Man. This happens after Jessica listens to Man on the phone with Wife and Daughter. Oh man, do I really have to tell people that Mattias Olsson is a screenwriter for hire? Man was Didio, and he wanted to get as far away from everything as possible. Why should I admire this nonsense? “Dark, murderous secrets from families” is the first lesson for taking a serial killer course.
Hyam’s adept directing and editing is quite confident, yet any merit of goodwill that arises from it is completely squandered with the introduction of another character, Robert (Anthony Heald). Like every other character in this type of picture, Robert is a dolt. Prior to his arrival, Jessica is already suffering from a brutal foot wound caused by her attempt to escape Man. So, I was anticipating that ‘Alone’ would turn into a psychological contest of sorts between the two Of course, it does, and that is why Robert is not just irrelevant but a walking example that a good guy with a gun does not prevent anything.
This goes without saying, but the dialogue Man is allowed to deliver is horrendous. When the movie catches him doing a monologue while attempting to draw Jessica out of the darkness, his ultra-low attempts at psychological manipulation are quite laughable. It is to Wilcox’s credit that she performs a character of such overwhelming mental turmoil, she nearly salvages the scene. But when Dull-Man tells me, with all the dullness that is within him, “I’m gonna get you, you delicious f–king bh!” my belief in the movie walk away completely. And we have not even gotten to the random chopper reveal, the obvious makeshift ending, and the phone call that, trust me, isn’t to the cops.
“Alone” hasn’t given us a reason to invest in the life or death circumstances surrounding our protagonist, but to the movie’s credit, Jessica is not depicted as some distressed princess. Even though she does make a silly decision or two, she is more clever and proactive than the average victim. At one point she beats the predator and captures him with a tire iron. When she crawls out, she also has the presence of mind to take that tire iron with her. I laughed, because I did not think she would do that. That is true survival instinct. Another scene features a would-be rescuer who, when faced with the choice of believing Jessica or the Man, chooses to side with the murderous Man simply because Man convinces him Jessica is an irrational woman. Maybe I have misread the scene as a critique of the patriarchy, but I still liked the harshness of that moment. It lingered in my mind long after the movie dragged to a conclusion.
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