Mayhem and bloodshed hang in the air as darkness is cast upon suburban Sacramento. "The Trigger Effect" could go in many commonplace directions from the initial blackout. Violence, destruction, an urban inferno of sorts. But none of that. The script avoids all the obvious traps and takes us straight to the heart of a far-from-perfect marriage, by way of the dusty California road. As the late Princess of Wales once put it: "There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded." All the lead characters feel like real people, not like the usual variables in a screenwriters equation: Matthew (Kyle MacLachlan, of "Blue Velvet" fame), Annie (Elizabeth Shue), Dermot Mulroney's Joe as the third one in the marriage, and Richard T. Jones as the mysterious stranger. This is a grown-up movie for grown-up people. Much like in life itself, there is no easy way out.
Review of The Trigger Effect
