Shut In (DVD) – Movie Review
Follow Genre: Drama, Thriller
Director: Farren Blackburn
Distributor: Belga Home Video
Duration: 90 minutes

Shut In (DVD) – Movie Review

Site Score
7.6
Good: Acting
Bad: Takes quite long to get up to speed
User Score
7.7
(3 votes)
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Rating: 7.7/10 (3 votes cast)

When we hear the name of Naomi Watts, we still immediately think of her as the beautiful Ann Darrow in King Kong. That film came out over a decade ago though, and the actress has not been resting on her laurels. In ‘Shut In’, she doesn’t play a beautiful, young character, but rather a middle-aged woman, looking to pick up her life again after a terrible tragedy, a character we found suits her very well.

Shut in title

Mary (Naomi Watts) is a child psychologist in rural New England. She has been happily married to Richard (Peter Outerbridge), and raised his son Stephen (Charlie Heaton) as her own. During high school, Stephen started to develop behavioral issues, up to the point where he got expelled. After long conversations and endless thinking, Mary and Richard decided it was best for Stephen to go to a specialized school quite far away, which could give him the care he needed. During the ride there though, Stephen picked yet another fight with his father, causing the latter to lose control over the car, driving straight into a truck coming from the other side. Now, six months later, Mary is trying to pick up her life again, which isn’t an easy task, coping with the death of her husband while caring for Stephen, who got completely paralyzed in the car crash.

One of Mary’s patients, Tom (Jacob Tremblay), is a little deaf boy whom she helps to cope with the death of his mother. Despite her efforts, it is decided that Tom should go to Boston for further counseling, but Mary disagrees. Nothing is to be done though, and thus Mary returns home after a long day, and prepares for the snowstorm ahead. A bit later, she finds Tom on her doorstep, and rushes him inside. While she’s on the phone with her colleague, figuring out what to do, the boy is suddenly gone again, leaving the front door wide open. Mary immediately warns the police, but as the storm is now raging hard, Tom’s chance of survival slinks down every minute.

Shut in 2

Mary feels guilty about what has happened, and even though they haven’t found a body yet, it’s very probable that Tom is dead. She starts hearing his voice a few times, or sees him in her dreams. More strange things start happening in Mary’s house too, driving her to the edge of insanity.

The story of Shut In moves rather slowly in the beginning, very gradually building up to the more thrilling part. It seems to be just an average film for quite a long time, and truth be told, we found that the most intriguing part wasn’t the mystery of why Mary started to hear and see Tom, but rather what happened after the mystery was unfolded. Be as it may, we found the film quite thrilling after it finally found its climax, be it with ups and downs.

Naomi Watts portrays her character Mary as a woman who looks very strong, but is lost at the same time, not knowing how to best take care of Stephen, and how to get on with her life. The actress shows many different sides of her character, really trying to add some depth. Further, it’s mostly Charlie Heaton, Jacob Tremblay and Oliver Platt as Mary’s psychiatrist who get a fair amount of screen time, Platt probably playing the most interesting character for the most part, which he portrays in quite a convincing way.

Shut in 1

Other than the trailer, there are no extras at all on this DVD release. As always, it’s a bit sad to see that there are no special features at all, but since the movie itself already has quite a hefty story, we didn’t mind so much.

Conclusion

‘Shut In’ starts off quite slowly, but once it finally gets up to speed, it takes you along in a story that will make you shiver quite a few times. Naomi Watts is very convincing in her role, which can also be said for Oliver Platt and Charlie Heaton. Parental guidance is advised in this thriller, but even though it gets quite hefty at times, we found this film to be quite worth the watch.

Shut in 3

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Rating: 7.7/10 (3 votes cast)
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Shut In (DVD) - Movie Review, 7.7 out of 10 based on 3 ratings

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