HAZY SHADE OF WINTER // A FILM REVIEW OF "CENTIGRADE"
Imagine yourself on a road trip. The weather is too dangerous to continue, so you pull over and rest. You fall asleep in your car for the night only to wake up and realize you're completely covered in snow, frozen inside of your vehicle. It's a scenario that truly would be a nightmare for any of us. For married couple Naomi (Genesis Rodriguez) and Matt (Vincent Piazza), this is their fate as they awake to this perilous situation. Based on true events, CENTIGRADE is a two-hander disaster film. Almost the entire film takes place inside of their car, as novelist Naomi and her husband Matt try to figure a way out. Complicating matters is the fact that Naomi is several months pregnant, seemingly close to actually giving birth.
As hours turn into days, the couple make an estimation that they can last for 12 days based on the food and water in the car. The film make the passing days feel bitterly hopeless, with things like a passing truck (which should be salvation) goes right by them, not able to hear or see them at all. They hold onto hope, even while occasionally cutting into each other as the stress and claustrophobia starts to get to them. As the 12 days deadline get closer and closer to them, with a freezing death inching its way towards them, the couple must make every decision count, because one wrong turn could be their last.
Co-Writer and Director Brendan Walsh works well with the limited space within the car (there's basically three sections. Not lot of room to wiggle around). As a viewer, you truly feel the pulsing beat and when the film slows down, it's right along with the emotions of the two characters. You feel their desperation and fear right along with them. Both Genesis Rodriguez and Vincent Piazza do a fantastic job conveying the overwhelming emotion that the situation brings them in. The only real downside is the lack of any real surprises from the script (which Walsh co-wrote with Daley Nixon). Beat by beat, nothing truly out of the ordinary happens, and you'll most likely see what's coming next. Still, the anxiety and emotions are all there, making CENTIGRADE a tense and claustrophobic experience.
GRADE: B
WRITTEN BY Daley Nixon, Brendan Walsh DIRECTED BY Brendan Walsh STARRING Genesis Rodriguez, Vincent Piazza. Now Playing at select Drive-In Cinemas and at Digital Cinemas now.