Day 170: Retreat

A couple head back to a cottage on a remote island that they visited when they were younger and happier. Along comes a man who is covered in blood and he tells them there’s a contagious disease roaring through the world and they have to lock themselves inside. But they have difficulty believing him.

Even if nothing else happened in the film, the fact that they decided to go to a cottage on a remote island when they clearly find it difficult to be around each other was just not a good idea. There’s no escape from each other there. I’ve always thought that if you’re having difficulties in your relationship then you need a bit of space so you can think clearly. If you’re together all the time (and the only people for miles around) then you can’t work anything out because you’ll just keep running into the same problems. But that would’ve been peachy compared to what did happen. Kate (Thandie Newton) saw Jack (Jamie Bell) stumbling around outside and when she and Martin (Cillian Murphy) take off to help him, they see he is covered in blood so they drag him back to the cottage. When he wakes up he tells them about this highly infectious disease that is spreading through the world and he takes charge, saying they should lock themselves inside. While Kate and Martin are both reluctant to follow him, they’re scared of the possibility of catching this killer infection and so they relent. Their time locked up is fraught with tension and it eventually leads to them attacking Jack. It turns out that Jack is the carrier of the infection and he’s infected them, and he only told them there was one outside because he couldn’t let them go around infecting other people.

It was interesting to see their doubts and fear about what Jack told them. He’s aggressive and frightening so the two have difficulty believing he’s there to help them. I get that he had to be a bit of a bastard so that we thought he was some crazy murderer but if this was to have happened in real life, if he was just nice to them and not threatening them with guns and whatnot, it would’ve all gone a lot better. I mean, sure, Kate and Martin would’ve still died but they wouldn’t have been terrified beforehand.

6/10