Shattered is at the top of the list due to its many twists and turns all the way to the last frame. It is riveting and pulses with a beat of its own that I have not seen in psych-dramas in a long time. Shattered is not a whodunit, because you know the culprit within the first ten minutes. It’s the tense nature between the three actors that give the film it’s tense edge.
The Randalls have a nice home and Neil (Pierce Brosnan) is moving up the ladder in the advertising industry. While leaving their young daughter with a baby sitter, Abby (Maria Bello) and Tom are unsuspectingly taken off guard when Tom Ryan (Neil Randall) enters their car to tell them their daughter has been kidnapped. They will do what he demands for the next twenty-four hours if they want to see their daughter alive again.
Deceit, lies and cheating all come to the surface as they follow Ryan’s demands including begging for money to pay for an extremely expensive meal, delivering a contract to an adversarial advertising company and killing a man. The lies the Randalls have been telling each other are learned the hard way and Ryan keeps pushing at gunpoint as they drive the streets of Chicago to reach and fulfill the next demand on his list.
I was expecting another James Bond-type of tongue-in-cheek dialogue. This, instead, gives credibility to what a fine actor Brosnan really is. Maria Bello is convincing as the wife who goes along with the shenanigans of Brosnan, and Tom Ryan convincingly plays the good guy who is being wronged by everything that is happening to him and his wife.
I was sitting on the edge of my seat throughout the entire DVD. I then watched the Bonus Features which included two featurettes, commentary by the director, as well as deleted and alternate scenes. This sort of mental rape could really happen. Are you sure “you” are happy with the way things are in your life? It can all be shattered in seconds.
