Willem Dafoe
“INSIDE” My rating: C+ (Prime Video)
105 minutes “ MPAA rating: R
Before drifting away into ambiguity, Vasillis Katsoupis’ “Inside” serves as both a reasonably diverting escape tale and as a one-man acting showcase for Willem Dafoe.
It begins with a high-tech burglary. Dafoe’s Nemo (we only know the character’s name from the credits) is dropped by helicopter onto the roof of an NYC high rise. He makes his way to the penthouse, a sprawling living space that takes up the entire top floor.
The towering walls are covered with expensive modern art…and that’s why Nemo is there. The absent owner of this palace has a collection worth millions; Nemo and his confederates (we only hear them through the walkie-talkie he carries) have a shopping list of items to steal.
But it all goes haywire. The apartment’s security system is way more sophisticated than the robbers thought, and within minutes of arriving Nemo finds himself locked inside. His partners in crime sign off, leaving him to whatever fate awaits.
It’s kind of like Robinson Crusoe with a panoramic view of Manhattan.
Nemo’s desperate attempts to disarm the security system are disastrous. Over the course of his imprisonment the apartment’s damaged climate controls send the temperature soaring to 100 or dropping almost to freezing. Our man spends days sweltering in his skivvies, and then must bundle up in pilfered clothing as the temp plummets.
More bad news: His tinkering has rendered inoperable the in-house phone that otherwise could be used to call the front desk downstairs.
The apartment’s owner apparently turned off the utilities before leaving for an extended European vacation, so Nemo has neither running water nor gas with which to cook the few items he finds frozen in the fridge. Luckily a couple of tropical trees in a huge planter are periodically watered by tiny hoses connected to a timer, so Nemo strategically places cups and saucers to collect the daily spray.
He can’t even watch TV. The big set in the living room will only deliver feeds from security cameras around the building, so our man must find entertainment eavesdropping on residents and staffers — especially a pretty young maid he dubs Jasmine (Eliza Stuyck).
“Inside” chronicles in minute detail Nemo’s day-to-day survival regimen and his escape attempts, which include building a shaky scaffolding of cannibalized furniture in an attempt to reach a skylight 20 feet overhead.
Dafoe embodies the character’s physical and mental deterioration with virtually no dialogue. Nor are there flashbacks to tell us anything about Nemo’s past. Is he just a thief or is he also an art lover? (Would an art lover paint mustaches on the priceless portraits on the walls?) At one point he passes the time by drawing his own mural on a wall.
It’s all very minimalist and for at least its first half “Inside” is a gripping survival story.
But “Inside” wears out its welcome, slipping ever more deeply into improbability. Example: Nemo deliberately starts a fire, setting off sprinklers that leave him ankle-deep in water. Yet apparently the rest of the building is unaware of the deluge…I mean, wouldn’t all that water leak down to the floors below?
Perhaps the biggest bugaboo, though, is Katsoupis and co-writer Ben Hopkins’ decision to leave us hanging without a clear resolution. They probably thought of it as artful. I kinda felt like it was a cheat.
| Robert W. Butler
Butler's Cinema Scene 