Inside Parent Guide

Nemo (Willem Dafoe) is a professional thief with a passion for art that’s about to get him in far more trouble than he thought – and the police are the least of his worries. When he breaks into a penthouse apartment reputed to have a very expensive private art collection, the security system malfunctions. He’s locked inside, the water is shut off, and the thermostat starts creeping upwards. Were that not enough, there’s barely anything in the fridge, which plays music at high volumes if the door is left open for more than twenty seconds. After exhausting the obvious options for escape, Nemo starts looking for less conventional and more destructive solutions, but without luck. Surrounded by the debris of his repeated failures, and short of food, water, and hope, Nemo might have to settle in for a longer stay – if he can hold on to his sanity.

Willem Dafoe is really the best reason to watch this movie, but unfortunately he’s just about the only one. That was always going to be the case since he’s alone on screen for functionally the entire runtime, but the film doesn’t make good use of his talents. He spends most of the movie grunting and whistling to himself, but since he’s Willem Dafoe, that’s more intriguing than it sounds on paper.

The movie is billed as a psychological thriller, but it feels more like a survival movie. Nemo is a one man shipwreck in a sparsely stocked luxury penthouse, and he has to learn how to survive in a less-than-hospitable environment. He doesn’t start talking to a volleyball or anything, but it’s a very similar story structure to Cast Away. I do like that aspect of the movie, but I wish it had found something else to add – elements of a serious psychological thriller, for example, would have been a real upgrade.

While the penthouse may not have good food, water, or environmental controls, it does have a lot of art. Unfortunately for concerned viewers, most of that art involves nudity or graphic sexual behaviour, which is yet another reason this film is not going to make it big on the family movie night circuit. Even more unfortunately, I think it lacks the depth to draw in many other viewers, thanks to the simplistic screenplay. Willem Dafoe shines throughout, but since there’s nothing else going on, he doesn’t have another choice. Unlike moviegoers, who I suspect will make a lot of other choices before they settle into this odd little film.