Jess (Stephanie Schildknecht) and Caroline (Roxane Hayward) are on their way to a music festival. They were supposed to catch a ride with some friends but end up stranded with no way to get there. They’re desperate and decide to take to hitchhiking when Jess is almost side-swiped by a car. The guys in the car stop to check on them and apologize. Fred (Tyrone Keogh) and Thomas (Keenan Arrison) are super apologetic and offer them a ride to make up for it. The women take them up on the offer and everything seems to be working itself out. In a freak accident, they crash into another vehicle and are sent off the road and find themselves stuck in the overturned vehicle in a ravine. Injured and no way to call for help, they have to try and use their wits to survive. Just when they thought things couldn’t get any worse, they find something in the vehicle that will open up an entirely different can of worms and their fight for survival is heading in a direction no one saw coming.
Accident is the debut feature film debut from writer/director Dan Tondowski and it shows. It’s a decent enough effort but the major issue with the entire picture is the script. While the basic idea of the story and certain situations that occur were quite imaginative, sadly, that’s all they really achieve. It was really difficult to sympathize with the characters when they’re underdeveloped, lacking in intelligence, and quite frankly, mostly unlikable. The four leads are all solid actors and do the best they can with the material they were given, so it does help elevate the finished product. In addition to the character issues, the dialogue was often silly and not very convincing. At times, you would just hope everyone would keep their words to themselves. There are a few twists in the story which are good but the way they unfold just doesn’t work and never really creates any interest.
While I found the script to be very problematic, Tondowski is a fine director. There are a couple of really terrific set pieces that make Accident worthwhile viewing. The sequence where we see the accident happen is superb! I was in an accident where the vehicle overturned and the way it was portrayed in the film was pretty damn close to the real thing. It’s a real showstopper of a moment and most certainly the highlight. The attention to detail was impeccable and it proves to me that the director has a very keen eye.
This was a tough film to judge, while there was so much within it I had issue with, it does show promise. With each project, a good filmmaker will learn from their mistakes and the growth will become apparent when they’ve moved on to their next one. While I can’t fully recommend Accident, I can appreciate the effort and can see the potential in Dan Tondowski as a filmmaker. Everyone needs to start somewhere and this is a decent launching pad him. It will be interesting to see if he recognizes the weaknesses in it and turn those into the strengths of the next one.
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