AMBER ALERT is a taut, nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat thriller with a fresh spin on rideshare stories with the integration of a child abduction as a plot driver.
One of the most riveting and frightening films of the year, AMBER ALERT is a film from which you cannot look away. It starts out a bit slow with a “meet and greet” between the rideshare driver (Tyler James Williams) and his passenger (Hayden Panettiere), but very quickly picks up with the abduction of a young girl named Charlotte and “Amber Alerts” pinging on the phones of Shane and Jaq, respectively. The intensity continues to increase as these two average citizens become engrossed by a vehicle on the road ahead of them with Jaq calling “911”, speaking with the officer manning the phones while a somewhat disinterested sergeant brushes the call off given Jaq doesn’t have the license plate of the vehicle to provide. Displeased with the police response to her call, and concerned about the child who may be in the car up ahead, Jaq and Shane pursue the Toyota Camry, turning this into a real cat-and-mouse game with the stakes as high as you can get – a little girl’s life.
Directed by Kerry Bellessa and written by Bellessa and Joshua Oram, the script is solid and the characters well-developed, believable, and resonant. What is most appreciated is Bellessa and Oram giving us a twist on many of the “rideshare horror” films we’ve seen the past few years with their blood and gore, and taking the idea of today’s rideshare zeitgeist and melding it with child abduction; who will put the pedal to the metal on the road if the phone pings or the overhead freeway signs blast “Amber Alert”? Given the child abduction aspect of the film, the story is told tastefully, both on the page and with the visuals as Bellessa puts us in the car with an almost “what would you do” challenge and never movies into graphic or gratuitous horror. The horror here is all psychological thanks to the fear and terror that come within your own mind’s eye as to what might happen to this little 8-year-old.
AMBER ALERT rises and falls on the performances of Hayden Panettiere and Tyler James Williams, as well as what Saidah Arrika Ekulona as Officer Cici brings to the table with urgency, as well as calm, in her voice and her facial expressiveness. So invested in her performance that even Ekulona’s hands and fingers tense up when Cici realizes that the info Jaq is giving her is correct and that the police are on a wild goose chase with another tip. Cici’s fear is palpable while Jaq is fueled not by fear, but by urgency and determination to “do something” to save little Charlotte. This is where watching Williams as Shane becomes a joy as he slowly goes from the nonchalance of seeing Jaq as just a fare and the pissed-offedness of missing his son’s birthday, to tacitly putting himself in the shoes of Charlotte’s mother; what would he do if this was his son. That realization comes to us through his facial expressiveness and his body language, notably when he goes pedal to the metal putting Charlotte’s life ahead of his.
Always nice to see Kevin Dunn and what he brings to the table and he doesn’t disappoint as Sergeant Casey, giving us a nice little emotional arc leading into the third act which is where Dunn shines.
I cannot say enough about Hayden Panettiere who won me over with her performance here as Jaq. And Tyler James Williams always delivers. The chemistry between Panettiere and Williams is impressive as a seemingly unbreakable bond develops between them. You can feel their bond as the tension of the situation ratchets up so thickly you could cut it (and more) with a knife. With a pivotal scene in which Jaq climbs into the front seat from the back, a changing dynamic is palpable as they start becoming “one”, emotionally bonding and intensifying their now slowly melding resolve. Shane is starting to fully comprehend the actuality and truth of what Jaq is seeing and feeling about that Toyota Camry.
There is a “confessional” scene in the car during the night which is a real tearjerker as each bares their soul, and it is a heartbreaker, thanks in large part to the depth of emotion Panettiere brings to the moment. Williams matches Panettiere’s gut-wrenching emotion with one of guilt for missing out on his son’s life events and working for money to buy expensive games for his son as a way to cover up his own shortcomings of divorce and separation from his son.
AMBER ALERT rises and falls on not only Panettiere and Williams but Josh Oram’s editing. Without the crisp, sharp, rapier editing that finds the emotional tone and builds the tension, AMBER ALERT would fall flatter than a pancake. Oram’s work is exemplary in developing the requisite tone and tension, and doing so with flashes/snippets of quick snapshots of information on little Charlotte – the white shoes, the pink socks, as well as utilizing the driving aspect of accelerating to over 100mph and quickly decelerating, as well as fraught-filled moments of uncomfortable silence as Jaq tries to lure the kidnapper over the phone. Holding the shots when Jaq and Shane meet the kidnapper face to face on the side of the road in the field is a nailbiter, however, I think it would have been more impactful and effective to skip the back-and-forth coverage shots and just stick with the wider two-shot so we see nervous reactions during the confrontation. The final half of the third act in the kidnapper’s house is through the roof with fear, tension, and even terror with discoveries that are made.
Kudos to production designer Sally Wegert on the design of the kidnapper’s house and the labyrinth of hell that winds through it before a shockingly horrific discovery.
Hand in hand with Wegert’s work is that of cinematographer Luka Bazeli with the lighting design and the handheld camerawork as Jaq and Shane move through the house to the ultimate showdown. The lighting design in that house is superb, giving us some muted negative space and only using what appears to be practical lighting with fixtures you would buy in a Target for a nightstand.
Speaking of Bazeli, nice work lensing within the car, keeping the images moving so we don’t feel claustrophobic or stagnant. We see the various elements within the car; the steering wheel and how Shane clutches it or hangs his hands on the wheel at 10 and 2 positions very casually, the phones, the floor, the gas pedal, the windows including side view mirrors. Jaq and Shane are not oblivious to the world outside the car; that is their primary focus. Compounding the cinematographic excellence is the film’s bookending with a beautiful wide shot of the park where Charlotte is playing with its green grass, blue skies, and sunshine to the grey and black “steely” tone inside a car and skies that turn grey and ugly once the abduction has happened and Jaq and Shane are on the road. Wonderful emotional metaphor.
From story to characters to themes to performance and the overall production values, AMBER ALERT belies this being Bellessa’s feature directorial debut. He has demonstrated that he has a great grasp of story and the visual grammar needed to bring it to life as if in real-time. And while this is a story that no parent ever wants to see unfold in their own lives, AMBER ALERT speaks volumes to each of us and gives us hope.
Directed by Kerry Bellessa
Written by Kerry Bellessa and Joshua Oram
Cast: Hayden Panettiere, Tyler James Williams, Kevin Dunn, Saidah Arrika Ekulona, Ducky Cash
by debbie elias, 08/31/2024
