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United Kingdom · 2018
1h 42m
Director Dominic Savage
Starring Gemma Arterton, Dominic Cooper, Frances Barber, Marthe Keller
Genre Drama
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Tara is a stay-at-home mom who is dissatisfied with her pushy husband, Mark. As time goes by, her feelings intensify, and her behavior becomes more and more unusual. One day, she makes a fateful decision --- one that will change her life forever.
Los Angeles Times by Gary Goldstein
Thanks to Savage's immersive, often improvisational approach and a compellingly raw, internal turn by Arterton ("Gemma Bovery," "Their Finest") as an everyday woman who seemingly has it all... Tara's claustrophobic world and increasingly checked-out mindset feel undeniably authentic. It's also all a bit grueling to watch.
Within about a half hour, what seemed at first banal is in fact oppressive. With deliberate pacing, minimal dialogue, and solid acting from the leads, the movie makes its point felt about marriage.
Savage’s film thoughtfully and credibly outlines the conflict between a superficially abundant lifestyle and overwhelming internal lack. It’s on less sure footing with the morally fraught wish-fulfilment of its second half, though Arterton’s quiet, consistent emotional conviction pulls matters through.
A kind of Ken Loach does Shirley Valentine, The Escape is not a comfortable watch. But it is a rewarding one, thanks to Dominic Savage’s forensic investigation of a disintegrating marriage and career-best work by Gemma Arterton.
The New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis
Subtle and slow and wrenchingly empathetic, The Escape is about gradually realizing that the life you have may not be the one you want.
It deals with a very ordinary emergency with deftness of touch, and the power of a singular performance.
Entertainment Weekly by Leah Greenblatt
Its title sounds like the premise for some kind of high-adrenaline adventure about maze-running or outgunning a nuclear apocalypse. But The Escape is both less thrilling and much scarier, in its own way — a quiet domestic-drama chamber piece with a vein of pure desperation thrumming beneath it.
A sturdy melodrama, more enjoyable for its performances than from its aged, time-tested and formulaic plot.
The Hollywood Reporter by Sheri Linden
Working in an improvisatory vein, in actual locations rather than constructed sets, writer-director Dominic Savage gives this story of a married woman's despair and awakening a powerful, lived-in immediacy. It's also the story of a man's struggle to understand his wife's pain, and the tortured, tender chemistry between leads Arterton and Dominic Cooper is profoundly affecting, at times shattering.
Screen International by Wendy Ide
Savage’s success at getting under the skin of the kind of cancerous depression which gnaws away at the soul means that this is not always the easiest watch. There are no audience-appeasing neat happy endings, just raw emotional wounds and aching compromises. But, despite a low key approach, this is a compelling, sometimes wrenching drama.
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