P2

Christmas Eve. Angela is forced to stay late at the office to finish some paperwork. **When she is finally ready to go home**, she discovers her car has broken down, and there is no one left in the building to help her, except Tom, the parking garage attendant. But Tom has a crush on Angela and would be thrilled to spend the evening with her. Angela rejects Tom's advances, but he doesn't take it well and traps her in the building's garage, beginning a night-long game of torture. "-2: P2" is truly a small film, both in budget (around $8 million) and in ideas. It presents the most classic of confined thriller scenarios, with a malicious brute hunting down a beautiful, defenseless woman in a closed space with no way out. That's it: no plot twists or noteworthy narrative innovations, just the classic cat-and-mouse game stretched out over an hour and forty minutes. The film's runtime, in fact, is not an advantage for this type of production, as a narratively static situation dragged out too long risks boring the audience. Despite this, "-2: P2" is not a film that can be outright labeled as bad. Perhaps it is somewhat underwhelming or unnecessary, given the overused genre it belongs to without adding anything new, but it is not bad. Director Franck Khalfoun, making his debut behind the camera after a few minor acting roles, directs quite solidly, as if he already has considerable experience, and Maxime Alexandre's cinematography helps create the right atmosphere for the interiors. Unfortunately, Khalfoun doesn't seem to have a good grasp of horror pacing, and in addition to excessively stretching the waits between events, he fails to infuse the overall situation with the necessary tension. This is somewhat surprising, given that the project is backed by producers and co-writers who are considered among the gurus of contemporary horror: the French duo Alexandre Aja and Grégory Levasseur, known for "High Tension," the remake of "The Hills Have Eyes," and the upcoming "Mirrors." What sets "-2: P2" apart from the mass of similar productions is the slightly above-average psychological depth of its characters. We learn about a victim who, in her daily life, is not exactly a "saint," but an ambitious social climber who reluctantly grants "favors" to her boss; and a psychopath who is portrayed throughout the film as an Elvis-loving, kind, and very lonely guy who just needs a bit of affection. Here and there, a few splatter effects (well-executed) are scattered, a trademark of Aja, likely included to jolt the audience out of the occasional boredom the film may induce. While Rachel Nichols ("Amityville Horror," "The Woods") is well-suited for the role of the attractive victim destined to run, get hurt, and end up in skimpy clothing, Wes Bentley is less convincing as the psychopath. Producers (or whoever advises them) should understand that this actor, though talented, is not suited for villain roles. He simply isn't believable! He worked as the "weird" guy in "American Beauty," but already as a demon in "Ghost Rider," Bentley was out of place, and here, in a role that might aim to echo Jack Nicholson in "The Shining," the story is no different. Released quietly in a few U.S. theaters in late July, "-2: P2" is the typical summer thriller-horror that, with proper promotion, might have garnered some audience success. Watchable, but too easily forgotten.