Right at Your Door

Starring: Mary McCormack, Rory Cochrane, Max Kasch, Tony Perez
Directed by: Chris Gorak
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Thriller
2007

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: After a series of dirty bomb attacks hit Los Angeles, a man (Rory Cochrane) tries to contact his wife (Mary McCormack), who was near one of the bomb sites.

Review:

Tim: Right at Your Door is a small, limited release film about a very scary and realistic attack on Los Angeles. Dirty bombs, chemical bombs and the like are all quite frightening, and this film portrays what it would be like to be in that situation. So many movies about terrorist attacks feature a hero like an FBI agent or a cop, so it was refreshing to see a movie like that, but with a regular, everyday, normal guy. Still, despite some good qualities, this movie is overall, a disappointment.

In many ways, this film feels like a directorial debut. And, it is not surprising that this was indeed Chris Gorak's first time directing. He certainly shows real promise, but is just too inexperienced as a filmmaker to make something great. The movie feels choppy and not as smoothly flowing as it should be. There are many scenes that feel awkward to watch, because they just don't come across very well. For example, when Brad is driving toward LA to search for Lexi, there are quite a few scenes of him driving very fast, while cars and police officers are all around him. These scenes are cut too quickly, and flash across the scene so fast that it was hard to watch. These scenes are supposed to be dramatic and exciting, but they were just annoying. There are a number of these moments throughout the film.

The other big problem is that the characters are never developed to the point where we'd actually care about them. Whereas we should have identified with them and cared about their plight, I only felt mildly interested in watching their story unfold. I appreciate that Chris Gorak (as the writer also) tried to make these characters realistic. However, their flaws don't necessarily make us care about them. In some ways, these people are very hard to root for- they are not exactly the most exciting or enjoyable characters. This hurt the movie greatly, because there are some very "emotional" scenes that I simply shrugged off. I didn't care about these people, so I felt nothing at these key scenes. That is a big problem.

There are some good things about this film as well. I like the idea of a movie about dirty bomb attacks in a big American city. This is quite frightening, and makes for a very good premise for a movie. There are some unexpected events that keep the movie interesting and keep us on our toes. However, the strengths are outweighed by the flaws. I like the idea and the effort behind it, but I just couldn't get very invested in the story or the characters. For that reason, this movie is a disappointment, and really wasn't very good.


Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



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