Routine ‘Breakdown’ Gets A Kick Start By Kurt Russell
The wide-open West is a land of menace once again in the simple-minded but suspense-filled “Breakdown.”
Jonathan Mostow’s feature debut owes a lot to such classics of the genre as “Deliverance,” “Straw Dogs,” “The Vanishing” and the TV movie “Duel.”
“Breakdown” does not approach those films, however, as it exists primarily to exploit one’s paranoid fears of random crime in an isolated locale. Characterization is kept to a minimum, while heroes and villains are unduly bland.
One can’t avoid rooting for headliner Kurt Russell, but the plot predictably escalates to “Road Warrior” proportions in the climax and the everyman hero must go into overdrive.
Jeff (Russell) and Amy (Kathleen Quinlan) are motoring from Massachusetts to San Diego when they stop for gas in the middle of nowhere. A tall, scary local (M.C. Gainey) in an old pickup admires their shiny Grand Cherokee. Dull but likable, Jeff and Amy cruise out of town, but they don’t get far.
Their vehicle disabled, the still-happy leads hail a friendly trucker (J.T. Walsh). He offers to drive them both to a phone, but after hesitating, Amy goes and Jeff stays with the car. When she does not return, he gets anxious, fixes the problem himself and drives to the nearest town.
When there’s no sign of Amy, Jeff starts to panic. He harasses the owner of a diner and then hits the road in search of Walsh’s truck. Jeff finds him, chases him and confronts him. No Amy.
The sheriff (Ritch Brinkley) shows up, but Walsh’s character pretends to be innocent. Going crazy, outsider Jeff is advised to calm down, but he is now suspicious of everyone.
Throughout the movie, Russell’s character tries to do the right thing, and when he must act, he uses his head.
It doesn’t take him long to find out that Walsh is the head of a rural-route death squad that preys on out-of-towners with cool cars. Amy is now a hostage, and the kidnappers - including Gainey’s malevolent cowboy and Jack Noseworthy as a young tough - want a pile of dough.
There are some pedestrian pleasures on the way - such as Jeff’s desperate ploy to scam his tormentors - but no big payoff other than a fairly routine showdown that involves crowd-pleasing vehicular and cliffhanging thrills.
Credit Russell for steering this star vehicle in the right direction with a restrained performance.
Technically, the film is tops, including Doug Milsome’s western-like wide-screen imagery and Victoria Paul’s dusty sets and locales. Mostow (Showtime’s “Flight of Black Angel”) is more successful with the film’s earlier sections, when there are still mysteries to reveal and the atmosphere of dread is resonant, but overall he gets the job done.
Basil Poledouris’ bombastic score, unfortunately, is too often a major distraction in otherwise exciting sequences. xxxx “BREAKDOWN” Location: Lincoln Heights, Newport, Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls. Credits: Directed by Jonathan Mostow, starring Kurt Russell, J.T. Walsh, Kathleen Quinlan, M.C. Gainey, Jack Noseworthy, Ritch Brinkley Running time: 1:35 Rating: R