REVIEW - HOURS

Mainstream schlock writer Eric Heisserer turns director for this sensationalistic drama, whose intimacy and whose emotional angle are fronts to disguise from Hours' thrill-seeking nature. As is frequently the case in such circumstances, Heisserer proves inept at either writing or staging the former aspects of the film, and is more successful when the final act resorts to frantic scenes of desperation and even violence. Combine with the Hurricane Katrina setting, and it's clear that a soul-searching story of a grief-stricken man caring for his newborn, premature daughter is quite out of place here. Heisserer lacks the ability to amalgamate the two films he's trying to make into one, and so they clash with one another. His cheap budget is wisely spent on limited locations, though not so wisely spent on ugly lighting at every turn. His cheap sensibilities as a writer do actually yield some effective results, as his compulsion to enliven an inherently restricted narrative does distract from his inadequacy in scripting something so spare, and keeps the film engaging, even if the many twists he employs occasionally require a significant suspension of disbelief. Katrina doesn't make for as urgent nor as potent a backdrop as it could have, and archive news footage of the destruction, sparingly used, brings home the extent of the devastation on New Orleans far greater in a few brief shots than the rest of Heisserer's film even attempts to. Paul Walker demonstrates that no matter whom the actor, nor how well-written the role, if a performer is written a character so prolific in their film, they'll deliver a performance worthy of the screentime.