Red Road (2007)
Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins
In the squalor of urban Glasgow, Jackie (Katie Dickie) works at a video-surveillance firm that is in charge of protecting people who live on a single block of Red Road. One day a man appears on her monitor, a man she thought she would never see again. That man is an ex-con named Clyde (Tony Curran). Clearly shocked to see him free from prison, Jackie begins stalking Clyde, compelled to confront him for his crimes. What mysterious history do they share, and why is Jackie so determined to punish this man? Filmmaker Andrea Arnold keeps the audience guessing and the tension building as Red Road crescendos to an explosive finale.
After three acclaimed shorts, including Wasp, which won the Sundance Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking and the Academy Award, Red Road marks Arnold's highly anticipated feature debut. It was constructed within the framework of Lars von Trier's experimental Advance Party project, the first of three films set in Scotland, by three different directors, using the same nine characters. Masterfully crafted, Red Road gets the project off to a stirring start.
--© Sundance Film Festival [Less]
Genre: Thriller, Vengeance, Love
Starring: Kate Dickie, Tony Curran, Martin Compston, Natalie Press, Paul Higgins
DVD Info
Release:
Aug 28, 2007
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- NTSC
- Keep Case
- Anamorphic Widescreen
- Single Side - Dual Layer
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
Sets a chilling downer mood that gets under your skin like few films ever do.
Ancorado pelas performances complexas de Dickie e Curran, o filme traz a diretora estreante Andrea Arnold como uma revelação a ser observada com atenção nos próximos anos.
Unfortunately, its superb performances and assured camerawork are overwhelmed by dubious psychology and a clichéd climax.
A brilliantly conceived thriller that keeps us guessing right up to the very end, Red Road intrigues but frustrates by its slow development and often incomprehensible Scottish dialogue
A strange sort of map of the city [is] spread across these fragmented cubes of visual information. And there's also the metaphorical map of the characters' lives, where they're coming from and where they're going.
I like that you're never sure where this road is going to lead.
Like the Peeping Tom-paranoia of similar recent films Disturbia and Civic Duty, this finely crafted debut feature by Scottish writer/director Andrea Arnold packs a wallop.
Red Road is an atmospheric little thriller made up of equal parts paranoia, loneliness and anxiety.
The glacially paced film is tersely episodic, and scenes are thrown onto the screen like jagged bits of raw meat that have been torn from a bone.
It’s a jarring sensation, for a thriller not to be about the chase, or the mysterious force of evil lurking in the shadows, but about an intangible gulf dividing two people occupying the same room.
Though it's paced as a thriller, the film ultimately emerges as a haunting exploration of how grief can weigh on us, and the depths to which it can drive us.
An impressive debut that is orchestrated with a deep, underlying tension that never lets us guess what will come.
A must for movie lovers who want to see how so much drama, mystery and emotion can be created from so little.
It should be noted that Red Road contains one extremely graphic sex scene. But like much else that transpires in Red Road, what is seen is not always what it looks like on the surface.
some may find the denouement a tad sentimental, but it is a long, dark and twisted journey that takes us there, scrutinising the shadier contours of human loss and guilt like a grainy face on a screen.
For a voyeuristic medium, this tale of a voyeur does a poor job of prying into its own protagonist's life.
Jackie's story extends beyond her control, no matter what she sees, thinks she sees, or tries to see.
A woman-directed film that aspires to compete on that predominantly male turf, not with an opposing and challenging female perspective, but by stepping up to the plate to make a sexually voyeuristic, sluttier than thou movie about women.
It's a wonderful debut, despite all the pain you may feel watching it.
Related Forums

by: REEL_REVIEWER 4/18/07

by: REEL_REVIEWER 4/18/07

by: REEL_REVIEWER 4/18/07

by: REEL_REVIEWER 4/18/07
Pictures
News
posted by Jen Yamato August 28, 2007
It's an exciting week to be a fan of NBC's Heroes (we vote Petrelli -- Peter Petrelli!) but the uninitiated also have...
posted by Alex Vo July 13, 2007
For several months, "Knocked Up" was bearer of the "Best-Reviewed Wide Release of 2007" crown. The award, however, now...
posted by Tim Ryan May 03, 2007
On HBO's "Six Feet Under," Peter Krause played Nate Fisher as an outwardly cool guy haunted by internal...
posted by Tim Ryan April 12, 2007
This week at the movies, we've got snoops ("Disturbia," starring Shia LaBeouf), temps ("Perfect...


Top Critic