'The Escapist' review

Joseph Fiennes (Credit: Colm Hogan/IFC)

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Felon Frank Perry (reliably ominous Brian Cox) is serving a life sentence at a British prison, where he's resigned to his lot in life until news of his daughter's critical drug overdose prompts him to orchestrate an elaborate escape plan. As backup, he enlists the help of a motley crew of fellow inmates, leading to a mass prison break that holds more than its share of twists—for the inmates and for our own tired notions of what a prison-break movie is all about.

The buzz: Although the film has served time as festival jailbait (including a gig at Sundance '08), it has mostly been flying under the radar—partly a victim of financial turmoil at its original distributor, Thinkfilm. The casting of Cox certainly ups the curiosity quotient: The actor's menacing growl always betrays a complex interior monologue.

The verdict: First-time feature director Rupert Wyatt, who also co-wrote the script, knocks it out of the park in a confident debut crackling with dank, sweaty, claustrophobic kineticism. Yes, the prison-break conventions are here—the master plan, the cat-and-mouse escape—but Wyatt gooses them up with a lean, breakneck narrative that jumps back and forth in time, opening with the actual escape and then backtracking to the circumstances that led up to it. And even then the film upends expectations by introducing a poignant metaphysical element that wonders exactly what kind of "escape" Perry is seeking. Have we seen these cinematic tricks before? Yes. But they're no less enjoyable when executed with this much skill and savvy.

Did you know: Because of the film's tight budget, its shooting schedule was apparently as swift as its pace: Wyatt and crew got everything done in 26 days.

["The Escapist" is also available through “IFC In Theaters,” a video on demand service from select cable providers and DirecTV.]

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