Don't Let Go review

DON’T LET GO:

DESPITE A UNIQUE PREMISE, IT’S BEST TO SEND THIS DISJOINTED THRILLER TO VOICEMAIL!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** out of 4

BLUMHOUSE

David Oyelowo and Storm Reid in Don’t Let Go

            A man’s family is murdered, but gets a mysterious phone call from the dead who turns out to be from the future and tries to prevent the incident before it happens in Don’t Let Go, the new thriller produced by Jason Blum (Split/Glass, Get Out, Us) and directed by Jacob Aaron Estes (Mean Creek, The Details, 7 Minutes). Despite hearing very little about this movie outside of a trailer shown before Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, this looked like an interesting movie with a unique premise regarding time-travel, and no it isn’t another Groundhog Day, Edge of Tomorrow, or Blum’s own Happy Death Day, moving on.

            Almost like if Taken or last year’s Searching had a time-travel plot without it being shoved down our throats. While not high on my list, I was curious to see how the movie would play out and came out of it with rather mixed thoughts.

            I still stand by that this is a brilliant premise and the film has its moments of genuine thrills and suspense. Unfortunately, it all boils down to the execution which to me, was rather clumsy and awkwardly paced.

            The film follows Detective Jack Radcliff (David Oyelowo-Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Butler, Selma) who after picking up his niece Ashley (Storm Reid-12 Years a Slave, A Wrinkle in Time, Euphoria) from the movies, his family is suddenly murdered including Ashley. However, things get strange when he suddenly gets a phone call from the deceased (and I ain’t talking about a ghost or Jack going paranoid!) who turns out to be none other than Ashley from two weeks into the future. 

            Realizing he has a second chance to right the wrong, Jack works to prevent her death before it even happens. But time is ticking with only three days to track down the men responsible for Ashley’s death and stop them.

            The film also stars Byron Mann (The Expanse, Arrow, The Big Short) as Detective Roger Lee, Mykelti Williamson (Miami Vice, Forrest Gump, The Purge: Election Year) as Bobby, Alfred Molina (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Frida, Spider-Man 2) as Howard, and Brian Tyree Henry (Widows, If Beale Street Could Talk, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) as Garret Radcliff.

            Overall, Don’t Let Go has its moments of thrills, but the film’s fascinating premise gets bogged down by clumsy directing and editing, lack of character development, and relying on many cheap horror/thriller movie tropes. Which is a shame because you can see a good movie trying to get out of this. 

As previously mentioned, I love the use of time-travel in this movie and there are times where the visual depictions of it are creatively done through one person sticking a wad of gum under a table and it suddenly appearing in a different time period where the other person sees it as well as both individuals sitting in a diner across from each other but cannot see each other and they communicate through their phones, for the most part these moments are done very well.

However, there are times where the logic doesn’t make sense particularly regarding Ashley, who is supposedly from two weeks into the future, but she was killed in the past, that’s kind of confusing. There’s also a time without giving much away where Jack gets shot and is severely wounded and is taken into an ambulance but when he dies, he is suddenly resurrected while driving his police car…yeah, not buying that movie, not buying that! How did he go from being on a hospital bed slowly dying to waking up in his car? I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I have an easier time believing the logic behind Kenny from South Park’s deaths and resurrections, at least those make sense.

It also doesn’t help that the film’s characters aren’t that well developed and while David Oyelowo and Storm Reid do a solid job portraying the protagonists, there isn’t much time devoted to them so we can grow attached to the characters before the bad things happen. Don’t get me wrong, the idea of a young girl trying to outrun her future demise at every step of the corner is terrifying, but the film never really shows what Ashley is like as a person, who her friends are, hobbies, etc. these would have made her a more interesting character and all the more heartbreaking when she gets murdered.

            The mystery itself feels lazily executed either at the cutting room floor or by studio notes, the script feels very rushed and like it’s on autopilot as the film progresses and I swear the big reveal of the culprit is just out of the blue with very little development or build-up. Had the movie taken an approach similar to Get Out or even the 2013 film Prisoners and catch the audience off-guard by the end, this would have been a much better movie, here it just feels like mystery-thriller clichés awkwardly stitched around an interesting but botched premise.

            Don’t Let Go might offer enough suspense to satisfy fans of the genre and the concept itself is remarkable, but through its awkward pacing, lack of character development, and ideas never fully realized, it becomes an underwhelming and dull thriller and it’s probably best to send it straight to voicemail.