Trunk review.
Coming to Prime Video January 26th…Trunk locks you in a nightmare scenario with gorgeous visuals, unrelenting tension and one fantastic performance.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Trunk
Directed by Marc Schießer
Written by Marc Schießer
Starring Sina Martens, Luise Helm, Artjom Gilz, Charles Rettinghaus, Janina Sachau and Pail Cairo
Trunk Review
Trunk isn’t the first movie to lock viewers inside a confined space with a solo protagonist. Ryan Reynolds spent an entire movie locked in a casket all the way back in 2010’s Buried. More recently, a man spent a long day in a porta potty in the aptly titled Holy Shit! It shouldn’t be difficult to figure out where Trunk takes place. What’s surprising about this incredibly specific subgenre of film is how often the movies turn out to be good. Trunk turns out to be great.
Malina Voss (Sina Martens) wakes up to find herself in a bad situation. Her legs aren’t working and she’s peering out of the half-opened trunk of a car. With a man fast approaching the vehicle…she manages to fish her phone out of a bag full of possessions. The trunk closes and the race to save herself is on.
A strong lead performance is required for these closed space thrillers to work. Sina Martens delivers a phenomenal one. Alone on screen for most of the picture…unable to move around space…in a never-ending tense situation. The circumstances are hardly ideal for an easy role. She’s aided by some fine voice acting and a great script…but the entire production still comes down to Martens delivering a performance capable of captivating viewers for the entirety of a feature length film. It’s a physically demanding role as well. Malina is in a lot of pain on top of her constant fear. This is an incredible performance.
In addition to Martens’ work…Trunk shows off an unbelievably creative use of camera movement and shot composition. Locking the production inside of a small space allows it to explore the most interesting ways to shoot it. There are more tricks here, more unique shots, than we’ve seen in a movie in quite some time. A lot of style points not only prevent a monotonous feeling of being locked in one small location…Trunk is downright dynamic. There are some incredible shots later in the movie when Malina has managed to poke a hole into the trunk. We watch utter chaos unfold in some incredibly exciting camera work.
Performance and production can take you a long way. Trunk’s engaging story takes it even further. There is non-stop tension from the opening scene to the closing moments. The how and why of Malina’s abduction is a mystery that she must solve. Using her phone to contact loved ones (and the police) ensures that the story won’t play out in silence. Malina is a resourceful woman who finds creative ways to gather information with limited resources.
How resourceful? She gives herself stitches with an earring and a shoelace when she discovers a large gash where her kidney used to be. Yeah…this isn’t a simple kidnapping. Her father is sent a ransom note. He believes this is related to a mistake from Malina’s past. Her fiancé Enno (Artjom Gilz) has also been abducted. Sister Mone initially believes it to be a prank. An emergency operator named Elisa (Luise Helm) provides her best source of hope.
Trunk has some clever moves up its sleeve to aid its storytelling. Malina discovers how she was abducted by watching a video she was shooting at the time. The face of her abductor is right there in plain sight. We get a proper introduction during a stop at the gas station. The movie sets up two ticking clocks to keep tension at its peak. Malina’s phone battery is constantly draining, and she overhears her captor say that they will reach their destination at 4:30. The dual countdowns increase Malina’s desperation as the story takes unexpected turns.
With a tight script, brilliant lead performance and some of the most interesting camera work around, Trunk is an intense thrill ride that you need to see. There may have been movies of its kind before…but they have rarely reached the heights that writer/director Marc Schießer finds. A must see when it hits Amazon Prime Video later this week.
Scare Value
Trunk is a marvel on many levels. Martens gives an endlessly compelling performance under incredibly difficult circumstances. The story never gives a moment’s pause from its high stakes tension. The camera pulls off fascinating movement after fascinating movement. If you think a movie spent with one character locked in a trunk can’t be visually stunning and provide non-stop suspense…Trunk is here to prove you wrong on both counts. Coming to Amazon Prime Video January 26.
4/5
