This movie will teach you to lock up when you leave. Intrusion stars Frida Pinto and Logan Marshall-Green. So let's get right into it. A woman moves to a small town with her husband, but is rattled when they experience a home invasion. So take a man and a woman, put them in a massive mansion out in the middle of nowhere, and then add in some bad guys who break into the home, and then you have this thriller called Intrusion.
This film strikes me like the type that is filled with things that try to be, but just aren't. The plot of this is very familiar and disappointingly, the twist is pretty obvious from about 20 minutes or so in. To the film's credit, there are a couple of creepy parts where things are seen beyond our characters sight lines and they're typically happening in the background, so that does add a mild sense of unease. These happen fairly early on in the story and once they've passed, we're kind of left without anything else to unsettle us or even cause tension.
I wanted to connect with the characters, but I kept feeling that they were strangers to me. I know some about Frida Pinto's Mira, but not much. I mean, things are hinted at that make it seem like there's more to her backstory, but if there is, we don't get much at all. Logan Marshall-Green's Henry is even more of a stranger.
We learn he's an architect who designed their massive house and that they've moved from Boston. And that's about all we know. The whole crux of the film rests on the fact that their home was broken into and ransacked.
Now Henry's concerned, but he's pragmatic about everything. Mira though is more troubled, especially because she has this nagging feeling that there's more to the reason for the break-in.
The story tries to introduce intrigue and mystery as Mira tries to dive further into why it all happened. And I like that she's a psychologist, so her diving into meanings and searching for causes makes sense with her line of work. There's one conversation that is shown with Mira and a patient, and it's the only patient we ever see her speak with.
And the only reason that we have it is to let us as the audience in on a piece of trivia that is meant to be symbolic or maybe even ironic later on. Ultimately though, her quest and the case as a whole are pretty uninteresting and not filled with any type of suspense. The musical score tries to mess with our emotions to try and create stress or anxiety during certain moments.
But because the scenes themselves never really felt that intense, I didn't feel what I think I was expected to experience. Like I said, within about 20 minutes or maybe even sooner than that, you'll most likely figure it all out. Leaving the remainder of the 92 total minute runtime to just figure out if you should continue to watch or not.
The actions of our characters are pretty cliche, and each time some suspense is built up by a scene, we know exactly how the outcome is gonna play out. I'm actually bummed that this wasn't very good. I mean, while I'm not terribly familiar with Frida Pinto's work, she wasn't terrible in this.
The script and direction just didn't leave much for her to do. And I really like Logan Marshall-Green, especially in Upgrade and The Invitation. Both of those are tremendous in their own rights, so if you haven't seen them, definitely give them a watch.
But in this, I don't buy his persona at all. I think we're supposed to see him one way, but I never actually did, and I can't tell if that's the way he was playing the character or if it's just what he had to work with and the direction he was given. So I think that's all I can basically say about this without going into massive spoilers or just completely trashing it.
I wanted to like this. I was looking forward to checking it out. Now I'm just not happy I did.
The plot is thin and generic with a storyline that is telegraphed so early on in the film that it leaves the majority for us to just sit as it flounders about until it gets to its surprise climax, which isn't surprising or climactic at all. Honestly if I am to rate the film, it wouldn't be more than 3.5 over ten. Just my opinion though.