Rodrigo Amaro
This is one of those rare occasions where I was waiting for something to appear on TV, didn't know anything about the picture but there was something there to make me stay until the end. And I can only thank myself for doing so!In "Pulp Fiction" there's a segment called "The Bonnie Situation" where Harvey Keitel has a small amount of time to clean up the mess made by Travolta after accidentally shot Marvin in the face. That whole scenario was absolutely insane but funny. What "Stuck" makes is incredibly larger than life, ten times twisted and a little bit funny, but it does also involve a situation with a car and lots of blood. Here, Mena Suvari plays an nurse having the best day of her life until she accidentally hit and run a man (Stephen Rea) who was having the worst day of his life after being evicted from his house. OK, hit and run doesn't sound like a nice description since the guy got stuck on her car window and she drove him home, out of desperation of being seen by someone who might denounce her.Can it get any worse? Yes, it can and it doesn't get better after one bad decision after another made by this woman who simply doesn't help this injured man, who tries in the best possible way (considerally being stuck on a windshield, with a broken leg and losing more and more blood) to get out of there. It gets more dramatic when she calls her boyfriend, a drug dealer, to get rid of her problem. Intense, tense and insane!Fans of the "snowball effect" situation will be highly thrilled with this story. It has plenty of absurd but it looks real, there's a sense of reality,we can imagine this bizarre scenario happening (not so much for the ending which is awesome and a little bit unexpected). We can put ourselves in the character's shoes, specially on Suvari's character (we would act and think better than her, our moral would be nicer than hers).A good study on how acting without thinking can get you in lot of trouble becoming an unforgettable thing in your conscience, "Stuck", just like the situation it presents, it's a point of no return. The main difference is that you wanna get stuck with it through the whole time along with Rea and Suvari and their top notch performances. 10/10
felixoteiza
I saw this DVD in the Library and I took it home just because I saw Suvari in the cover. I liked her in AB so I wanted to see her again. The fact that I read there about this being a "darkly humorous" thriller also helped. But I got more than I had bargained for--and I'm not even referring to that dandy bed scene of the beginning. For starters, there's nothing funny here, despite what the DVD cover says--and yet I couldn't help but LOL at some shocking scenes; like for ex. when Brandi hits Tom in the head with a rod or log, to make him stop honking the car. This is actually a sad, tragic, story; but mostly a psychological thriller, or a psychological study, about people put in unexpected, dramatic, even tragic, dilemmas and how they react to it.An overworked, X-gulping nurse and party girl hits with her car an OOW Project Manager and takes him home, stuck in her windshield. There she tries to get rid of him, with the help of her drug pusher boyfriend. That's the story. Great acting by Suvari, who carries the flick on her shoulders–-with much help from her firm, expressive, facial features--as Rea (as the PM) doesn't have much to do but to suffer all kind of ignominies, and put the sad eyes of a battered dog, while Hornsby acts, rather overacts, portraying every ugly stereotype about his people (I've always wondered why people do that--are you listening, De Niro?). The cinematography's decent, so the pacing & editing. But this is a action driven flick, so we'll stay mostly focused on the going ons, neglecting much of the rest. I don't even recall if there was some musical score, which I guess helps making my point.The central idea in the film is how a human being, any human being, can go from doing the most selfless, caring, acts to commit the most heinous crimes without fundamentally changing characters, remaining the same person, as long as he/she finds a justification for the deed. (a truth that could be applied also to good, nice Germans exterminating entire populations "for the good of the nation"). I'm sure that if Brandi had gotten away with her plan to burn the garage and get rid of both men she would have been next day at her job, providing her loving care to her patients, as she strongly felt that was her calling in life. So, there is no character change in her in the film. Until the moment when, pinned by her car, she tries to shoot dead Bardo she is still the devoted nurse of the beginning. That's her calling, how she sees herself and for that reason she clings to the idea of staying the course no matter what. She sees the accident as an irritant rather than as a tragedy, which threatens her apostolate and that's why she indignantly screams to Bardo "Why are you doing this to me?". The fact is, she sees herself as doing much good for others to tolerate to be interrupted, specially by as someone worthless as him. It isn't the money what interest her-she mentions it to Rashid only to get into his wavelength--but her promotion to greater responsibility in her Earthly mission, even if it means taking a heavier workload. (remember her joy when writing her expected assignment on a paper.) Good concept; good development. Not that Stuck is flawless. In fact I see two flaws in the plot, having to do both with the male characters. First, Bardo. He says he's a PM, but he doesn't have a clue. He has been two years out of work and he isn't even in the computer. Granted, such a thing may occur to all of us, but usually when you have just entered the system, or shortly after, not years later. At this point he should have been on first name basis with employees in the UO; he should have become an habitué from the day he found himself OOW. Yet, years later he's still a stranger. How he spent all that time anyway? Then, even knowing that he's bound to be evicted anytime, he hasn't done the necessary arrangements for when the occasion arrive. He doesn't even know that he could go to a shelter for the homeless, which shows he didn't do any pertinent research; he didn't even inquire where he could go for help. So can you blame anyone for laying off such an inept PM? No wonder people see him as useless. The second flaw relates to Rashid. I don't understand why Brandi is his girlfriend, as there's nothing bringing them together. She could always pay for her X fix with sex, she didn't need to be his lover, even less cling to him to the point of violently expelling his other mistress from his apart.. My guess is, he was made his lover just to get him aboard; it was probably thought that she couldn't extort him into lending her a hand and if he was only her dealer. So, this is a plot contrivance; but, as there was no serious effort made to better justify or base their "relationship"-on common things for ex.-the weakness of the forced subplot appears all too clear (see how Brandi reacts seeing him dead: she tries to burn the body to incriminate Bardo!).Finally, I'll take back 1/2 point to get back at Gordon for giving me a moment of total disgust. Gordon: we DON'T NEED that eye candy to get it; we could have gotten it just as well if you had suggested what Mr. Binckley did on the bed, not shown it all in its unblemished glory & beauty. 6.5/10.BTW: an anonymous call to police wouldn't have helped the illegals, as they would have been interviewed anyway the moment Brandi's house is declared a CS.
ravi-putcha
What I do like about this movie is the sensitivity with which it portrays plight of people. A jobless man, a day-care nurse, a drug dealer and their interaction with each other, how they block out their feelings towards others, is portrayed skillfully - this partly makes up for flaws in the script. What I don't like about this movie is its confused script. There are many a seen which didn't make sense and fit in. Based on an implausible mishap - the movie drags on and on to a shocking climax. Mena Suvari is nothing like the innocent teenager in The American Beauty, Stephen Rea is good as a jobless destitute.
Marjeez
Running at around 85 minutes, this is the perfect rental from the director of 'Re-Animator'. Stuck has an interesting plot and an impressive film to back it up. Mena, a young NA (hey, that's my job too!) decides to get high during a party. On the ride home, she hits a bum pushing his kart. He is stuck through the window, and she panics and decides to drive home. In her garage, she notices that he is still very much alive.The acting was a surprise considering I can't name any of these actors, who did I fine job giving a realistic feel to Stuck. The dark humor is plentiful but never feels forced, and trust me when I say this; you will look away at parts. Filmmakers of the horror genre should take note, the gore is there and it'll make you feel squeamish. It has the feel of an indie but the quality of a much larger film. This is a grade-A B-movie.Never in a million years did I think I would enjoy this movie as much as I did. It has many different genres in mind, but they all manage to blend together to create something special.
