Rent Brake (2012)

Brake review by Melissa Orcine - Cinema Paradiso

‘Brake’ is a suspense thriller starring Stephen Dorff, a secret service agent who finds himself encased in a clear box, with torture devices at the ready should he even thinks of escaping. If he has a plan, he has to make it work especially since he’s being tortured for the program called ‘Roulette’. Turns out that’s the name of the place where the US President hides out and the terrorists wants it bad. Will he crack under pain and pressure? Will his secret service agent training come in handy to get out of his unorthodox ordeal?

The movie ‘Brake’ is not for claustrophobics. Sure, you’re not Stephen Dorff but you will feel for him. Nobody wants to be in a box that small while awake and alive. Oh wait – Ryan Reynolds already did in ‘Buried’. But whatever, ‘Brake’ has its modified box contraption: besides being made of plexiglass with torture tricks, it rolls out inside the trunk of a car. A mobile kidnapping and legal detention device that means business.

As you watch ‘Brake’ details, however murky, are revealed on how the hell did Stephen Dorff’s character Jeremy Reins ended up at the mercy of terrorists. Reins has a CB radio and a cellphone, he can speak to people outside – but are they his allies? There’s also a clock that counts down to zero and each time it does that, Reins’ gets a ‘surprise’. ‘Brake can be considered ‘torture porn’, and it shouldn’t entice us to see what’s coming next. You ought to be egging him to free himself and escape, which is what you will be doing, trust me.

Actor Stephen Dorff may have had a weird career, from being a teen heartthrob in the 90s to villain territory (‘Blade’), heroics (‘Immortals’), and most recently, drama king in Sofia Coppolla’s ‘Somewhere’. He is versatile albeit with a scatterbrain for the movies that he chooses to make. In everything though, he is bearable and capable so at least you know he can be the lead of a movie. ‘Brake’ is easy for him. Hopefully, this won’t go straight to DVD.