*MAJOR SPOILERS*
Lets just start things off by saying John Goodman was scary good. I was thinking to myself about halfway through the movie who else could have played his part. Bill Murray was the first to come to mind, but honestly John Goodman nailed this part.
Anyways, 10 Cloverfield Lane is a 2016 mystery/horror film about a young woman named Michelle (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who is running away from personal issues, wrecks her car, and then wakes up in an underground bunker chained to the wall. 10 Cloverfield Lane nails it genre here as we begin to question everything that Michelle is questioning. Howard (played by the talented John Goodman) is the owner of the bunker, and the one who saved Michelle from the accident. He explains that the world is in dismay, and that she has to stay with him in the bunker to stay alive. We begin to question Howard’s character very early on, as some parts of him just seem a little.. off. As the movie progresses we meet Emmett (played by John Gallagher Jr.), who seems to be a normal guy blinded by Howard’s nonsense. Three people stuck in a bunker.. how bad could it get?
What 10 Cloverfield Lane succeeds in is making the viewers question Howard. John Goodman does a phenomenal job just being creepy in this film, and presents the character so well that I don’t know if I will see him the same way again. There are a couple of scenes in this movie where Goodman walks into a room and you can just feel how massive his presence is. Goodman’s character is such a difficult character to play and understand as he constantly changes your mindset of him. Do you fear him? Do you respect him? Do you trust him? Do you sympathize for him? Those were all the questions I kept asking myself through the progression of this film. One thing is absolutely certain about his character, and that is.. he’s nuts. So bravo to John Goodman for absolutely nailing this part, and really stealing the show.
As for the rest of this movie there are some scenes that just didn’t sit well with me. Emmett’s death was a little too sudden, even when I was expecting it, and Goodman’s character after the death of Emmett just didn’t make too much sense to me. Sure, I understand that he’s crazy, but we actually don’t have any true evidence that Howard actually killed Megan, or Brittany for that matter. All we know is that a local girl from Emmett’s high school was in Howard’s bunker and somehow died in his custody. Sure we see Howard kill Emmett in cold blood, but that was with reason. I mean, Emmett blatantly said “I wanted your gun..” and “.. I was making a weapon to get it.” What did he really think was going to happen?
What about the end, you ask? Eh. Didn’t impress me as much as I wanted it to. Having read the script and the original ending, I found myself enjoying that finale (the script) a lot more than the one we were given. I did, however, enjoy the split in the road at the end of the film, as it really signified that Michelle has progressed as a character. Earlier on we see Emmett and Michelle exchange some dialog about regrets and not doing what they thought they should have done. With the fork in the road and her choosing to go out and help, I really felt like she was ready to take on whatever life was giving her, even at the chance of losing her own.
Anyways, 10 Cloverfield Lane was a good movie, and definitely one I’d recommend. Was I disappointed I didn’t view it in the theater? No. 10 Cloverfield Lane was a good late night movie full of some surprising twists. The plot and pacing of the movie were very well done, but I felt the end and some character arcs lacked a bit in detail. So to finish things off, I decided to give 10 Cloverfield Lane a “Good” on theVade Review Bar. It’s worth renting, but not a buy in my opinion.
