Stuck, a cunning and energetic thriller, takes its premise from the real-life incident of a woman who hit a homeless man, then drove home and parked the car in the garage--with the man wedged halfway through her windshield. The genius of Stuck is that it not only squeezes every possible drop of gruesomeness out of this event, it also portrays everyone involved as a fully-rounded human being. Brandi (Mena Suvari, American Beauty), the driver, is a nurse at a retirement home who genuinely cares about her patients and is struggling for a promotion; for Tom (Stephen Rea, The Crying Game), being hit by a car is only the latest in a long line of misfortunes and indignities. But this is no earnest tragedy--instead, when the movie seems about to become a grim psychological portrait of denial and trauma, it shifts into high gear as a brutally funny black comedy.
Director Stuart Gordon, best know for the over-the-top horror of Re-Animator, keeps most of Stuck slyly underplayed, to superb effect. The simple but effectively constructed script zips along, zigging and zagging within a very tightly framed situation. Suvari, Rea, and the rest of the cast (including excellent newcomers Russell Hornsby and Rukiya Bernard) commit to every emotional twist, turning from suspense to satire with adroit skill. This movie was made on a modest budget but has more thrills, laughs, and genuine tingles up and down the spine than all the special effects money can buy. A gem of tight, effective filmmaking.
--Bret Fetzer