10 Cloverfield Lane Review

10 Cloverfield Lane is a thriller starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman, and John Gallagher, Jr. Winstead plays a young woman named Michelle who has left her boyfriend. While driving down a country road at night, Michelle gets into a car accident which leaves her unconscious. She awakens in an underground bomb shelter built and maintained by Howard (John Goodman), an obviously unstable, middle-aged man who claims that there has been a chemical attack that has left the air on the surface unbreathable and that they must live in the shelter for a year or two in order to survive. Also living in the shelter is Emmet (John Gallagher, Jr.), who helped build the shelter and allegedly witnessed the chemical attack. However, a series of clues leads Michelle to believe that Howard could be lying. What ensues is a tense psychological thriller about a woman trying to discover the truth and plot against her insane captor with the help of Emmett and her impressive wit.

First of all, the acting in this movie is fantastic. Winstead and Goodman steal the show with strong acting abilities and very interesting characters. You really root for Winstead’s character because of her kind nature and intelligence. Her intelligence is also worth shouting at since most lead protagonists in films of this genre lack the intelligence of an average human as evident by their tendency to go where it is obviously dangerous and to not have common sense. Michelle is very smart and is usually one step ahead of the audience, which is very refreshing. Goodman plays his role extremely well too. He portrays a character that comes off as subtly insane most of the time while also having moments of complete sanity and complete insanity. Such range in an actor’s performance is always impressive. Now, there is an underdeveloped character in this film as there is in most movies, and that is Emmett. He mostly provided comic relief and served as an aid in Michelle’s rebellious schemes. It is obvious that most attention was given in developing Winstead and Goodman’s characters. However, this is only a minor flaw.

I also must applaud the atmosphere and setting of this movie. The majority of this movie takes place in a bomb shelter, which could pose a problem for the average director. With such little space, you can only make a movie so long while still keeping it interesting. However, this movie is always interesting. It is constantly tense and as aspects of the movie are revealed, the plot goes through many twists and turns. There is the signature twist ending that is to be expected in a movie of this nature that manifests itself in the middle of the ending action sequence. I was very surprised by the ending, and, at first, I didn’t care for it. It felt abrupt and out of place but after thinking about it for a while, I realized how ingenious it was, and now I love it.

Other than the underdeveloped character and an initial lack of satisfaction from the ending, there is only one other negative I can find in the movie, and that is its name. I have a feeling that many people are expecting a large sequel to Cloverfield, which starred a gigantic monster rampaging through New York City. However, that is anything but the case. This is a confined thriller that is scary on a human level that has very few, if any, ties to the original movie. It could possibly take place in the same universe, but that is the only legitimate relation. If you don’t go into this movie expecting a large scale monster movie, then I think you will love this movie as a thriller as much as I did.