Buy It Now: The Escapist

Dir. Rupert Wyatt

Rating: 7.5  |  0 User Reviews  |  Send to Friend

By Joe Osborne

Here, we have a tricky film. It cleverly fools you into believing it's a simple, formulaic prison escape flick but, instead, reveals a surprising amount of depth, in addition to a disturbing amount of grit in seemingly every shot, which keeps the tension near the breaking point. This, accompanied by a score that combines classic small orchestra elements with modern synth beats makes for a film that would keep you on the edge of your seat if you weren't pondering what exactly was going on. The film uses an interesting method for telling its story, bouncing back and forth between flashback and flash forward.

Frank Perry (Brian Cox), a lifer within this London penitentiary, is the central focus of the film's plot when he receives a letter informing him that his only daughter has become a junkie and has nearly died from an overdose. Just when he has essentially accepted his fate as a prisoner for life, the letter inspires Frank to brew up a plan for escape with his friend Lenny Drake (Joseph Fiennes) and a few select -- and one not-so select (Dominic Cooper) -- cell mates. The film's dual narrative (being the preparation for the escape and the escape itself) connects the standard themes of freedom and incarceration to a more incredible twist that affirms the tried and true adage that perception is reality.

Director Rupert Wyatt's debut contains all the classic prison break tropes including the prison fight, the shower scenes and the chief prisoner, Rizza (Damian Lewis) who runs the joint better than the official security bulls. However, it also taps into some very real elements of prison life including drug abuse and homo-eroticism which make for a far more layered, engaging and believable story. Wyatt, who wrote the script with Daniel Hardy, chooses to omit mention of any of the crimes the men committed in the first place, further reducing the separation between their world and our own.


Special features include the standard deleted scenes, release trailer and “making of” mini-documentary.

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