This is a British film that never got a release in the U.S., but now arrives on DVD mainly due to the rising stardom of Keira Knightley (PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN). The film begins with Elizabeth Dunn (Thora Birch, AMERICAN BEAUTY) stumbling out of the woods into her boarding school. She and three friends have been missing for 18 days. One of the friends is Mike Steel (Desmond Harrington, TV’s TAKEN), the American son of a world famous rock star, who Elizabeth is in love with. The two others are pretty boy rugby player Geoff Bingham (Laurence Fox, GOSFORD PARK) and “Miss Popular” Frankie Almond Smith (Knightley).
To get out of having to go on a field trip or visit their parents, the four students get brainiac Martyn Taylor (Daniel Brocklebank, THE HOURS) to set up a hideout for them in WWII bunker. Dr. Philippa Horwood (Embeth Davidtz, BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY) is assigned to interview Elizabeth and find out what happened in “the hole.” The happy ending that Elizabeth originally tells is obviously not true and the film spends its entire running time trying to figure out fact from fiction.
I was intrigued by the characters and their motivations and engaged by the way the film was structured. Midway through you pretty much knew what would happen, but you need to know how and why. That’s what makes the film so good. I’m surprised that this didn’t make it to theaters in the U.S. It pretty much blows most U.S. teen thrillers out of the water. This film goes to show that a common story told in a new way can be fascinating.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
