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The Escapist is a film about a prison break. Nothing new there, then. Indeed, the prison genre has been so extensively mined by Hollywood (and television, both American and British) over the years that surely there are few innovations left to be brought to the table. Some of the greatest and most popular films ever made are prison-based - a standout being The Shawshank Redemption, of course, which Filmverdict rated the #1 film of all time last year, and also such perennial favourites as The Great Escape - but the setting does seem exhausted of all cinematic opportunities. Rupert Wyatt apparently disagrees, however, and The Escapist, his feature-length directorial debut, is the film with which he intends to set out his argument.
To the director's credit, The Escapist does inject some new life into a potentially tired premise. The opening few minutes are quite striking and suggest that this is not just another prison film. The film starts with a slow-paced sequence showing life in prison, predictably enough (backed, interestingly, with a Leonard Cohen track, recalling Robert Altman's 1971 western McCabe & Mrs. Miller), but then suddenly jump-cuts straight to an escape attempt in progress, accompanied by Benjamin Wallfisch's propulsive original score. We are introduced to the participants in the escape attempt with a quick caption simply giving their name and the length of their sentence. Unusually, there is no talk at any time in the film given over to discussion of the reasons why the characters find themselves in prison, and therefore nobody protesting their innocence. This refreshing approach does threaten to make the main characters unlikeable - all convicted criminals who presumably deserved to be incarcerated - but it doesn't prove to be a problem, partly because the reason for the escape isn't simply a quest for freedom. Brian Cox is the extremely watchable focal point of the film, and it is his character who initiates the escape attempt. He receives a letter telling him that his daughter, who he hasn't seen in 14 years, is now a drug addict and close to death, so he decides he must get out and set her life back on track.
The main element that sets The Escapist apart from previous prison films is its structure. For its whole duration the film intercuts between the escape and the preparation, which at times seems gimmicky but at others allows for some very clever cuts. It also is crucial for the ending to be possible. However, despite some good direction and a gritty, sometimes Fight Club-esque, look, there really isn't enough innovation here. Many of the typical prison movie clichés are encountered and the set-up portions are, due to over-familiarity, rather less interesting than the sequences involving the escape. Nevertheless, the plot is intricate enough to remain consistently intriguing, and Wyatt brings an undeniable vitality to proceedings (the superb use of surround sound also deserves mentioning). Ultimately, though, the twist ending undoes much of the good work and ends things on an unsatisfying note, missing the emotional mark that it aims for.
The summary
An accomplished prison drama, The Escapist is quite engrossing and features some excellent central performances. Sadly, it does not really offer anything that has not been seen before.
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