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Another non-Hollywood review for you, Row. We had the trailer for Row a little while ago, and I was sent a screener and gave it a go.
The movie stars Sophie Skelton, Bella Dayne, Akshay Khanna, Joanna Roth, Mark Strepan, Tam Dean Burn, and Jenny Quinn. Matthew Losasso is the writer and director.
The Story
The plot for Row is:
After a failed trans-Atlantic WR attempt, a woman washes ashore on a blood stained rowing boat. With all of her crew mates missing, presumed dead, she must try and piece together fractured memories of the ordeal to prove her innocence.
Most of the movie is set on the water, the big, blue, cold ocean. However, it’s also told from the bed of Megan (Dayne), who seems to be the only survivor of a failed rowing world record attempt.
She washed up on a beach in Scotland and spends the movie trying to remember what happened. The attempt was doomed from the start, and as the pressure mounts, so does everyone’s nerves with each other.
As the movie unfolds, there is more to everything than meets the eye. She’s the only survivor; however, it doesn’t seem to be an accident that everyone is missing.
The Cast
There’s a huge difference between good acting and bad; you really notice bad acting. This is not the case with Row; the cast are all new to me, but solid. Each of the cast members has their own agenda, and you don’t know who to trust.
I have said it before, but I love movies with a minimal cast, especially in small environments. This reminded me a little of Lifeboat by Hitchcock; there is a group of people in a boat. It’s all played out with the actors and story.
Row takes a slightly different take on it, having some of the movie taking place where Megan is recovering, is clever, cheaper too than filming out in the ocean. If you want a frame of reference about filming at sea, watch any documentary about Jaws.
The acting in Row is very good and a believable cast.
Overall
There isn’t much more to say about Row, as I said, it’s like a Hitchcock thriller and a solid story. However, it does tend to drag on towards the end. There is a 2-hour run time, and I don’t think the story is strong enough for 2 hours.
I know I bang on about 90-minute movies, but you can tell a damn good story in that time. When most of Row takes place on the ocean, in probably difficult filming conditions, I’m surprised it wasn’t a shorter movie.
The other thing about the third act was that it is full of twists that aren’t really twists. There isn’t a big enough cast to not figure out who was who and what they probably did. Most of the ‘reveals’ weren’t really that much of a reveal.
As per usual, I’m being overly picky on a movie that is well made, with great production, and a solid cast.
The movie poster sells it more as a horror, with a large skull in the sea, but it’s a thriller; there’s nothing ‘horror’ about it. Well, not what I would call horror, with ghosts or monsters. The only monster is us humans!
If you wanted to see a good thriller, you might enjoy Row, it’s not my usual cuppa, but I was happy to follow the story. As I said, though, it started to drag towards the end.
Row will be in UK cinemas from the 29th of August.
The post Indie Review: ROW appeared first on Last Movie Outpost.
