Red Eye

(Herald rating: * * *)


You're flying back home from a funeral, your flight is delayed, someone has spilt coffee down your front, you're a nervous flier and the pilot has warned about turbulence. Whatever next? Some kid banging the back of your seat?

How about this: the guy in the next seat says he will have your father killed if you don't make a call to the hotel where you work to help his plot to assassinate a major US security chief.

That's the set-up for Red Eye, a taut thriller that slightly unravels when it turns slasher film at the end, something that director Craven knows about from his horror days.

But before that, Craven shows he knows how to push our buttons. Red Eye has a finely developed sense of peril and menace, all set against the tension and claustrophobia of modern airline travel - the film's fictitious commuter airline is called, amusingly, Fresh Air.

Lisa Reisert (McAdams) is a manager for a big Miami hotel, flying home overnight from Dallas. She sits next to Jackson Rippner (Murphy), who flirts with her until they are airborne when he reveals why they are sharing an armrest.

Much of the action takes place in those seats, which might seem confining. But the solid performances and close-up-friendly faces of McAdams and Murphy help to sustain the tension and twists, all the way back to terra firma.

CAST: Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Brian Cox
DIRECTOR: Wes Craven
RATING: M (violence, offensive language)
SCREENING: Village, Hoyts, Berkeley cinemas