Generally speaking, I’m no fan of storytelling gimmicks, and that’s especially the case when the gimmick really is the story and not vice versa.
In fact, there are many examples wherein the geographic construct for telling a certain story becomes almost as important as the story itself. Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954) is told almost entirely from the point of view of L.B. Jefferies (Jimmy Stewart), a wheelchair-bound photographer recovering from his injuries who believes he witnesses a murder and the resulting cover-up via nothing more than the window to his second-floor apartment. Similarly, Joel Schumacher’s Phone Booth (2002) spins a provocative web from the dubious location of the corner telephone booth, where Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell) unwittingly answers the call from a nearby sniper and propels himself to the center of a media spotlight. Amping up the claustrophobia to inhuman proportions, Rodrigo Cortés set his 2010 thriller Buried smack dab in the coffin itself, forcing the abducted Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) into a battle of wills with a caller who may or may not have his best interests at heart.
There’s a balance that needs to be maintained whenever approaching such material. In limiting the movement of characters, there’s a huge risk of sacrificing visible pace all in favor of maintaining the framework. Actors and actresses put into such circumstances will not only be required to perform at the top of their game, but they also must be given interesting material that’ll keep the focus of the audience while asking them to endure such tight confines. Having seen this attempted with middling results, it’s not a construct I would encourage many to facilitate … and, yet, 2023’s Trunk: Locked In somehow manages to get surprisingly good mileage out of little more than a trunk space filled with actress Sina Martens. The ride might be a bit cramp at times – bumpy in others – but it reaches its destination just as planned.
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“Malina wakes up disoriented in the trunk of a speeding car and discovers to her horror that she is missing more than her memory. With her mobile phone as the only link to the outside world, she wages a desperate battle for survival.”
Though I could be a bit confused on the details, I’m pretty certain that it was Chris Carter – the celebrated creator of Fox TV’s stellar paranormal procedural The X-Files – who once remarked that his show couldn’t have been made in the days prior to the invention of the cell phone. While it might be easy to debate otherwise, I think the storyteller’s central premise was that having the technological ability to have advanced forms of communication available at one’s fingertips certainly swung the door open to a good many new avenues for those crafting such stories; and – if that’s the case – then the same could be said for writer/director Marc Scheißer’s latest thriller, Trunk: Locked In.
In fact, there are many examples wherein the geographic construct for telling a certain story becomes almost as important as the story itself. Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954) is told almost entirely from the point of view of L.B. Jefferies (Jimmy Stewart), a wheelchair-bound photographer recovering from his injuries who believes he witnesses a murder and the resulting cover-up via nothing more than the window to his second-floor apartment. Similarly, Joel Schumacher’s Phone Booth (2002) spins a provocative web from the dubious location of the corner telephone booth, where Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell) unwittingly answers the call from a nearby sniper and propels himself to the center of a media spotlight. Amping up the claustrophobia to inhuman proportions, Rodrigo Cortés set his 2010 thriller Buried smack dab in the coffin itself, forcing the abducted Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) into a battle of wills with a caller who may or may not have his best interests at heart.
There’s a balance that needs to be maintained whenever approaching such material. In limiting the movement of characters, there’s a huge risk of sacrificing visible pace all in favor of maintaining the framework. Actors and actresses put into such circumstances will not only be required to perform at the top of their game, but they also must be given interesting material that’ll keep the focus of the audience while asking them to endure such tight confines. Having seen this attempted with middling results, it’s not a construct I would encourage many to facilitate … and, yet, 2023’s Trunk: Locked In somehow manages to get surprisingly good mileage out of little more than a trunk space filled with actress Sina Martens. The ride might be a bit cramp at times – bumpy in others – but it reaches its destination just as planned.
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“Malina wakes up disoriented in the trunk of a speeding car and discovers to her horror that she is missing more than her memory. With her mobile phone as the only link to the outside world, she wages a desperate battle for survival.”
Though I could be a bit confused on the details, I’m pretty certain that it was Chris Carter – the celebrated creator of Fox TV’s stellar paranormal procedural The X-Files – who once remarked that his show couldn’t have been made in the days prior to the invention of the cell phone. While it might be easy to debate otherwise, I think the storyteller’s central premise was that having the technological ability to have advanced forms of communication available at one’s fingertips certainly swung the door open to a good many new avenues for those crafting such stories; and – if that’s the case – then the same could be said for writer/director Marc Scheißer’s latest thriller, Trunk: Locked In.
After having run away from her adult life and responsibilities to abscond with her lover Enno (Artjom Gilz), Malina (Sina Martens) wakes up in the trunk of a car with little recollection of how she may’ve gotten there. Thankfully, she was curiously (conveniently) videotaping their road trip and somehow managed to be tossed ‘in the boot’ with said camcorder, allowing her to replay the footage to jog her memories. Over the course of the next few hours, she’ll use her cell phone to call for help – all the while trying to secure additional details on her abductor that she can relay to the authorities – in a race to save herself and Enno from whatever dark fate might be waiting at the end of the trip.
Now, I’m not going to make light of Malina’s circumstances. The truth here is that each of us – no matter what we might think otherwise – has no way of knowing how we’d react if we found ourselves in similar dire straits. What I’m suggesting lightly here is that the lady doesn’t make some of the smartest decisions right out of the gate, and I suspect this was most likely owed to Scheißer’s script. Saying the first thing I would’ve done is called the police is an easy gimme; the fact that Malina chooses otherwise is eventually underscored by the weight of her character’s emotional baggage, none of which is known in these early scenes. Let’s just agree that an effective game plan for escape never quite emerges, and, yes, some of this weakens an otherwise crisp and exciting tale.
Also, I’d be remiss if I failed to point out the obvious: this has to be one of the most spacious and best lit trunk spaces ever featured in cinema. Yes, Scheißer manages to work wonders with the obvious claustrophobia-inducing camerawork in every conceivable passage; but there are still a few sequences I suspect push the limits of what’s plausible to accomplish with relative ease in such cramped quarters. Again, this is in no way to suggest such a story is impossible; once you set aside some of those quibbles, however, Trunk works about as well as it could ever have been executed.
Ultimately, Trunk is a thrill ride – a fun one, at that – and it relies almost entirely on its unique point-of-view. To that end, Scheißer bobs, weaves, and crawls around the space in ways that wouldn’t have been possible a few decades earlier; and just about the time when you think you’ve experienced every possible camera angle the director manages to find one more to put the car into a higher gear. The fact that there’s far more story to Malina than what meets the eyes definitely elevates this one into territory few will see coming, but it still works best with a willing suspension of disbelief over some of the minutiae about leg room. It ain’t perfect – I’m still trying to figure out just what transpired in one of its last scenes – and maybe that’s the point of life itself.
Trunk: Locked In (2023) was produced by Outside The Club. The film is presently available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I found the sights-and-sounds to this exceedingly well-produced affair to be on the highest quality from start-to-finish. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? As I viewed this one via streaming, there were no extras under consideration.
Highly recommended.
Succinctly, I think Sina Martens’ central performance is the biggest reason to enjoy the thrill ride that is Trunk: Locked In. While Marc Scheißer’s script and direction are compelling, it’s ultimately Malina’s journey – with its broken discoveries and misguided attempts along the way – that produce the greatest noise. While the single-set construct has been used before, this arguably should go down in film history as one of the better attempts to ratchet up action while spending the bulk of the duration in the tightest confines of record. Sure, it’s imperfect … but can’t the same be said of every road trip?
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that I’m beholden to no one for this review of Trunk: Locked In (2023) as I viewed this one streaming via my subscription to Amazon Prime Video.
-- EZ
Now, I’m not going to make light of Malina’s circumstances. The truth here is that each of us – no matter what we might think otherwise – has no way of knowing how we’d react if we found ourselves in similar dire straits. What I’m suggesting lightly here is that the lady doesn’t make some of the smartest decisions right out of the gate, and I suspect this was most likely owed to Scheißer’s script. Saying the first thing I would’ve done is called the police is an easy gimme; the fact that Malina chooses otherwise is eventually underscored by the weight of her character’s emotional baggage, none of which is known in these early scenes. Let’s just agree that an effective game plan for escape never quite emerges, and, yes, some of this weakens an otherwise crisp and exciting tale.
Also, I’d be remiss if I failed to point out the obvious: this has to be one of the most spacious and best lit trunk spaces ever featured in cinema. Yes, Scheißer manages to work wonders with the obvious claustrophobia-inducing camerawork in every conceivable passage; but there are still a few sequences I suspect push the limits of what’s plausible to accomplish with relative ease in such cramped quarters. Again, this is in no way to suggest such a story is impossible; once you set aside some of those quibbles, however, Trunk works about as well as it could ever have been executed.
Ultimately, Trunk is a thrill ride – a fun one, at that – and it relies almost entirely on its unique point-of-view. To that end, Scheißer bobs, weaves, and crawls around the space in ways that wouldn’t have been possible a few decades earlier; and just about the time when you think you’ve experienced every possible camera angle the director manages to find one more to put the car into a higher gear. The fact that there’s far more story to Malina than what meets the eyes definitely elevates this one into territory few will see coming, but it still works best with a willing suspension of disbelief over some of the minutiae about leg room. It ain’t perfect – I’m still trying to figure out just what transpired in one of its last scenes – and maybe that’s the point of life itself.
Trunk: Locked In (2023) was produced by Outside The Club. The film is presently available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I found the sights-and-sounds to this exceedingly well-produced affair to be on the highest quality from start-to-finish. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? As I viewed this one via streaming, there were no extras under consideration.
Highly recommended.
Succinctly, I think Sina Martens’ central performance is the biggest reason to enjoy the thrill ride that is Trunk: Locked In. While Marc Scheißer’s script and direction are compelling, it’s ultimately Malina’s journey – with its broken discoveries and misguided attempts along the way – that produce the greatest noise. While the single-set construct has been used before, this arguably should go down in film history as one of the better attempts to ratchet up action while spending the bulk of the duration in the tightest confines of record. Sure, it’s imperfect … but can’t the same be said of every road trip?
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that I’m beholden to no one for this review of Trunk: Locked In (2023) as I viewed this one streaming via my subscription to Amazon Prime Video.
-- EZ
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