LEAVING ON A JET PLANE // A FILM REVIEW OF "SURVIVE"
The new streaming app Quibi, created by Jeffrey Katzenberg, has officially launched, and the platform is offering a 90-day free trial through the end of the month. Prefect timing for all of us (re: nearly everyone) who's stuck at home. Each program, and they have movies, TV shows and reality television so far, offer each "episode" in 10-minute small bites, which are released one at a time daily on weekdays. One of the starry new offerings is the action thriller SURVIVE, starring Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner and Corey Hawkins (soon to be seen in the big screen version of IN THE HEIGHTS).
Turner plays Jane, a very troubled young woman who's been living in a recovery home called "Lifehouse." She has suicidal ideation and has convinced her counselors that she's recovered. However, she is far from it, and is planning on swallowing a handful of pills on the plane ride home, slowly falling to sleep in the air. However, fate had other plans for her. The plane taking her home violently crashes in the snowy mountains of the Northwest. Once she comes to, she realizes she is one of two survivors; the other one being Paul (Hawkins), a man she already had a few moments with at the airport and who was oddly sitting right next to her on the plane. Together, they gather what they can and head off into the mountains - to survive.
The concept of someone who wanted nothing to do with survival now having to fight for it is an intriguing one, and both actors are certainly up to the task. Sophie Turner's early scenes at "Lifepoint" and pre-crash are gripping and harrowing. With very little time, Turner gripes your heartstrings and plunges deep into the character. Post-crash, however (at least so far - I've seen only a handful of episodes so far) her character is more one-note and even a bit grating. Hawkins is also a great presence on screen whose character also suffers slightly once the crash happens.
Being that this is a film "in progress" and more episodes are to come, these character flaws, as I see them, could very well make more sense in the grand scheme of things. But as of now, right when the story should be the most gripping, it's become the most formulaic (they also drop an interesting "breaking the fourth wall" narrative structure once the crash happens). And each episode varies wildly in style and feel, making the experience a bit more jarring than necessary. The actors and the story are interesting enough that I'll keep tuning in, but it's going to need to come together sooner rather than later to keep viewers wanting to stay stranded with them.