While She Was Out

While She Was Out

Drama (Thriller)

2008

Rated: R

Running Time: 108 minutes

Starring: Kim Basinger

Directed By: Susan Montford

Rating: 0 out of 10

Outline

A woman must run for her life as she is chased by 4 gang members.

Review

                                                                                                   

If Phoebe Cates was my number one crush when I was a kid then Kim Basinger was a close second. Well that was until Mickey Rourke just dealt with her for the entire 2 hours in Nine 1/2 Weeks. Anyways I hadn’t heard of this film before (not a good sign) when I randomly came across it. I saw it starred Kim Basinger and was presented by Guillermo Del Toro and I said to myself how bad can this movie really be? To make a long story short I didn’t dislike this film I loathed it. While She Was Out is the story of Della Myers. She is an unappreciated house wife who goes to the local mall to buy some gift wrap. On the way back to her car she is accosted by some hooligans and must run for her life in a nearby forest.

It takes a lot for me to give a movie a 0 on the rating scale. I usually can find something positive to say about a film but not with this. The film starts off and we get to see a puzzling opening sequence where Della’s husband goes on an abusive tirade of epic proportions. The cleanliness of their house causes him to verbally abuse her for like 5 minutes straight. I am not sure if this is a thinly veiled poke at Alec Baldwin but it does not remotely fit into this film. From there the film follows Della to the weirdest mall in America. The mall sells lingerie not in stores but in racks along walkways for everyone to see. Apathetic deaf people with attitudes work at the coffee shops. The mall closes and the thousands of shoppers instantly disappear leaving the huge parking lot empty, and those are just the things I can remember. Della inexplicably gets involved in a fight with a group of thugs in the parking lot and her flight for her life commences. Up to this point the viewer will have felt nothing for the main character, so when Della gets chased into the forest you will yawn instead of care what happens next.

Della is played by Kim Basinger and all I can say is wow. Her weird over emotional delivery fails at every turn. She is depressed one moment and fierce the next. She is whiny in the next instance and then she is cold as ice the next. I get they were trying to portray her as a self empowered woman but this was an awful performance and a terrible character. Speaking of terrible, the random collection of four super stereotypical gangsters also made this movie suck. There is a White leader to not stir any controversy, the hip hop Asian guy, the Latino, and the African American guy make up this Glee ensemble gang. This ridiculous group hangs around super busy parking lots looking to harass lonely women during the holidays apparently. So a terrible protagonist and ridiculous antagonists and the film never has a chance.

As the film continues we are treated to Della running Forrest Gump style around the forest while carrying a red toolbox. The toolbox never makes a sound even though it is full of metal objects that she fends off her attackers with. The movie is spent following Della while the thugs chase her around and they are always right behind her even though the forest is huge. When the movie seems to be at its absolute worst the leader of the thugs keeps yelling out "Della!" This is not only stupid it is basically a desecration of the famous scene from A Street Car Named Desire. This film is in no way interesting, it is in no way thrilling, it is in no way scary, and most importantly it is in no way believable. Over complicated deaths and cheesy characters are all that you can expect if you decide to watch this. Not sure where this ranks on my all time worst movie list but it cracks the top 100 for sure.

Director Susan Montford has directed only this movie in her career and it is not a shock as to why. From its campy and tired gang members to its terrible dialogue, there is a plethora of things this movie failed to do. No one will be interested as hooligans chase a house wife through a forest. The film starts off strange and ends even worse and truly this is not worth anyone’s time.

I cannot recommend this movie.

T Factor + If you are able to enjoy movies without thinking too much about them then this could score higher on the rating scale.

T Factor – None.

If you liked this film reel recommendations: The Brave One, Panic Room.