Detained
Directed by Felipe Mucci
Written by Felipe Mucci and Jeremy Palmer
Starring Abbie Cornish, Laz Alonso, Moon Bloodgood
Unrated
Runtime: 1 hour, 37 minutes
In theaters and on demand on August 2

by Andrea Schmidt, Staff Writer

Warning: This review contains plot spoilers. 

Detained opens up promisingly enough: an atmospheric crime scene where police attempt to trace the origins of a fire that left a number of burnt corpses. A flashback then cuts to a bloodied and bruised woman chained to a desk in a police interrogation cell. We soon learn that the woman, Rebecca (Abbie Cornish), is being held on charges of a hit and run. However, Rebecca soon realizes that she is a prisoner in an elaborate embezzling “sham.” What follows involves a chamber play of psychological second-guessing between herself and a group of increasingly inept criminals.

The conceit of the film proves promising; however, the execution is flawed. A psychological thriller plays the fine line withholding enough information from the characters and/or audience members so as to cultivate tension, but revealing enough information to not create confusion. Detained unfortunately waffles back and forth between excessive overexplanation and frustrating underexplanation. Loose and dropped plot points abound and characters hash over plot details to excess. (I am not one overly devoted to plot, but when a character exits the building to talk to someone outside, reenters to inform the others that demolition of the building “will start in an hour,” and the demolition does not take place–that is a major plot hole.) Instead of applying Alfred Hitchcock’s adage of “show, don’t tell,” Detained tells, shows, and then tells several times over.  For example, in one sequence towards the beginning, a character played by Justin H. Min introduces himself as Rebecca's replacement lawyer. He tells her his name, hands her a card with his name (which the camera lingers on in close-up), and then a reaction shot of her looking at the card. Characters repeat the same plot point and line of dialogue over and over to each other in a scene. Good films do not underestimate the intelligence of the audience. Detained makes clear that not only does it not trust its viewers, it also vastly overestimates the intelligence of its own filmmaking. 

Unfortunately, Cornish remains the only actor able to rise above the material. Always riveting to watch, particularly in Somersault (2004) and Bright Star (2009), she finds beats and moments of tension in scenes where none exist. Whenever she does not appear onscreen, the film suffers for it. One of the few engaging scenes occurs towards the end of the film where she summons a rage howl that appears out of genuine truthfulness to the character. Laz Alonso also gives a good effort as the most devoted “baddie” of the group, but even he cannot get past the weak dialogue and contrived plot twists. With a few of the supporting characters, it was difficult to ascertain whether the wooden acting resulted from the poor script or direction. Perhaps, with a stronger script, Detained could have proven a much more engaging thriller, worthy of the efforts of its actors.