The Escapist

Frank Perry is serving life. His daughter outside is dying of addiction and he wants to see her once more. The only way is out. He puts together a crew from the wing: someone who knows a tunnel, a chemist, a heavy, and an unreliable kid. What stands against them is not only walls but the prisoner who runs the wing and his brother. The film's one formal move is this: the escape starts at the beginning. The narrative keeps winding forward into the break and back into the preparation inside. The two lines meet at the end, and that meeting changes what the whole film was. Rupert Wyatt directed and co-wrote with Daniel Hardy, his first feature. Brian Cox plays Frank, with Damian Lewis, Joseph Fiennes and Dominic Cooper in the cast. Joe Walker edited. The script began with Cox himself, written after he asked for a decent leading role. It screened at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, and Wyatt went on from there to be known in America for Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Who it is for: anyone who likes prison-break films and stories that play with editing. Who it is not for: anyone looking for realism. Parts of the plan do not convince, the supporting characters are defined in a sentence each, and the ending will feel to some viewers like a trick.