Stuck - A Stuart Gordon Film

Thriller from the Re-Animator Director Based on a True Story

Sep 24, 2009

Stuart Gordon directs this lean thriller about a young woman who hits a homeless man while driving under the influence.

Stuart Gordon is best known for directing the cult horror movie Re-animator (1985). Since then he has mostly worked in the horror genre, apart from a minor box-office hit with the Christopher Lambert sci-fi movie Fortress (1993). Gordon has been gradually moving away from his horror background though, having directed an adaptation of the David Mamet play Edmond in 2005. Stuck is a breezily, nasty little thriller that benefits enormously from Gordon’s B-movie instincts.

American Beauty star Mena Suvari plays Brandi, a care worker in an old folk’s home who is being considered for promotion by her boss. Brandi meets her boyfriend Rashid (Russel Hornsby) after work for a few drinks. Afterwards she makes the unfortunate decision to drive herself home while over the limit.

Stephen Rea (The Crying Game) plays Thomas Bardo, a man who is seriously out of luck. In the space of a few hours Thomas finds himself thrown out of his apartment, having the job interview from hell, then being hit by a car and driven home while still trapped in the windshield of the vehicle.

Gordon makes a hash of the collision between Brandi’s car and Thomas by slowing it down rendering what should have been a horrific moment almost comical. The sight of a car being driven around with a human being trapped in the windshield is surreal, but it is a telling commentary on people’s attitude to the homeless that this goes unnoticed, except by another down and out Thomas befriended in a park a few hours earlier.

Brandi drives Thomas to the hospital intent on leaving him outside, but she takes off when paramedics appear. Instead she goes home and parks her car in her garage with her brand new hood ornament Thomas Bardo still draped over the bonnet with his head still trapped in the windshield. More worried about her how a DUI charge might affect her chances of promotion, than in helping Thomas, she turns to her drug dealer boyfriend for help.

Everybody in the movie is stuck in one way or another. From Thomas who is literally trapped, to Brandi whose selfishness has put herself in an increasingly worse position and her next door neighbours who become aware of what is going on but do nothing in case the police find they are illegal immigrants.

Director Stuart Gordon’s background in the horror genre means he knows exactly how to wring tension from Thomas’s predicament. In one eye-watering sequence Thomas has to pull himself through the broken windshield, lacerating his body even more. There’s an even nastier sequence when a little dog finds a way in and starts chewing on bone showing through one of Thomas’s wounds.

Stuck is a superior little B-movie with an out-there premise that seems even more incredible for being based on fact. Rea delivers a characteristically under-stated turn as Thomas, while Suvari manages to suggest Brandi has both the caring instincts necessary to keep her job and a nastier side that is impressed by her boyfriend’s badass credentials. Russell Hornsby is pretty funny as Rashid, who is nowhere near as tough as Brandi thinks he is.

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