Retreat could have been a good movie if the director had had his eyes open. Since the general plot has been dissected numerous times by other reviewers, I won't waste your time by repeating the story all over again.
However, either the director thinks his potential audience are all a bit "slow" (to say the least) or HE is a bit slow himself. Why do I say this?
Well, even though Martin and Kate are going through a small setback, surely that is no reason why, when they find an unconscious injured man on their island retreat, they shouldn't, at the very least, clean him up and dress his wounds. In such an environment there would be no doubt that their cottage would have been well-equipped with first-aid provisions yet all they appear to have done is drag the poor guy into the house and dump him on a sofa and then just sit and look at him! NO ONE would do that no matter how disturbed they were! The guy still has streaks of blood all down his face from open wounds to his head! Gee! I would sure hate to get shipwrecked on an island where they were the only occupants!
Then, when he does come around, the stranger tells them what could well have been a true story albeit somewhat bizarre. But then, when he says that the virus is airborne and their house must be sealed up, no one thinks to ask what they are all going to breathe once it is and then, when he convinces Martin and Kate to actually decimate the building and board up the doors and windows, there are enough gaps between the boards for a vampire bat to fly through - let alone a minute virus - never mind the chimney!
The premise of the story is plausible but its handling is pathetic! The fact that Martin and Kate actually bought Jack's story is an insult to the intelligence. I watched Retreat to the bitter end because I love Thandie Newton (and so the ending didn't please me one bit!) With a couple of exceptions, Cillian Murphy's character, Martin, was pretty lame. For example, he tells his gorgeous wife that he doesn't know what to do to ease her pain. How about giving her a great big loving hug for starters? There's poor Thandie (sorry, Kate) crying out to just be loved and all he can say is that he doesn't know what to do! I could go on but what's the point?
Maybe another effort will be made with the story sometime in the future with better results. You know, I think that it should be mandatory for film directors to take basic courses in psychology so that, at least, their "normal" characters (as opposed to psychopaths who they can make as weird as they like) will behave like normal people do behave and not totally irrationally!
However, either the director thinks his potential audience are all a bit "slow" (to say the least) or HE is a bit slow himself. Why do I say this?
Well, even though Martin and Kate are going through a small setback, surely that is no reason why, when they find an unconscious injured man on their island retreat, they shouldn't, at the very least, clean him up and dress his wounds. In such an environment there would be no doubt that their cottage would have been well-equipped with first-aid provisions yet all they appear to have done is drag the poor guy into the house and dump him on a sofa and then just sit and look at him! NO ONE would do that no matter how disturbed they were! The guy still has streaks of blood all down his face from open wounds to his head! Gee! I would sure hate to get shipwrecked on an island where they were the only occupants!
Then, when he does come around, the stranger tells them what could well have been a true story albeit somewhat bizarre. But then, when he says that the virus is airborne and their house must be sealed up, no one thinks to ask what they are all going to breathe once it is and then, when he convinces Martin and Kate to actually decimate the building and board up the doors and windows, there are enough gaps between the boards for a vampire bat to fly through - let alone a minute virus - never mind the chimney!
The premise of the story is plausible but its handling is pathetic! The fact that Martin and Kate actually bought Jack's story is an insult to the intelligence. I watched Retreat to the bitter end because I love Thandie Newton (and so the ending didn't please me one bit!) With a couple of exceptions, Cillian Murphy's character, Martin, was pretty lame. For example, he tells his gorgeous wife that he doesn't know what to do to ease her pain. How about giving her a great big loving hug for starters? There's poor Thandie (sorry, Kate) crying out to just be loved and all he can say is that he doesn't know what to do! I could go on but what's the point?
Maybe another effort will be made with the story sometime in the future with better results. You know, I think that it should be mandatory for film directors to take basic courses in psychology so that, at least, their "normal" characters (as opposed to psychopaths who they can make as weird as they like) will behave like normal people do behave and not totally irrationally!