'Stuck': When selfishness becomes murder

By Christy Lemire, Associated Press

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Thinkfilm

Mena Suvari plays a nurse who hits a homeless man in her car and leaves him to die, stuck through her windshield.

The movie is about a woman who hits a guy with her car, drives home with him lodged in the windshield, then parks in the garage, closes the door and leaves him to die.

The title tells you everything you need to know about the tone the movie takes with this ghastly subject matter: Stuck. Cult horror director Stuart Gordon plays the material absolutely straight, but with a twisted sense of humor.

Stuck is based on a true story, a fatal 2001 car crash in Fort Worth, Texas, that earned the driver, Chante Mallard, a 50-year prison sentence. But this is no prime-time TV re-enactment, full of glossy lighting and stylish edits; Gordon and co-writer John Strysik strip the accident down to expose the ugliest elements of human behavior.

Mena Suvari, her angelic features hardened by her blond hair in cornrows, stars as Brandi, a retirement-home nurse who gets behind the wheel after a night of drinking and pills. Stephen Rea co-stars as Tom, a man who has lost his job to corporate downsizing, is homeless and just happens to be crossing the street at the wrong time.

Brandi's meager life in Providence, R.I., is on the upswing while Tom's is in decline: She's in line for a promotion at work, and her fear of losing out on the new supervising gig is one big reason she panics and keeps the accident a secret.

She's also not the sharpest tool in the shed. Her boyfriend, Rashid (Russell Hornsby), is a drug dealer who cheats on her and keeps popping Ecstasy tablets in her mouth to assuage her when she freaks out.

"Baby, you got nothin' to worry about. You hit a bum!" he coos. "It's no big deal." Rashid also suggests that new seat covers might help cover up the crime.

But there's Tom, his legs splayed across the hood, his torso flopped over the dashboard, blood from his forehead landing with a loud slap- slap-slap on the passenger seat. The moment when he writhes and struggles to reach Brandi's cell phone to call 911 is intimately gory. (The fact that Rea, star of The Crying Game, has to do most of his acting from this position is a testament to the versatility of his talent.)

Stuck shows how one bad decision can lead to another, causing ordinary people to do extraordinary things in the name of survival. Brandi's eventual ability to turn the crime upside down in her mind and blame Tom for lying there mangled and bloodied by shards of metal and glass is stunning. (That's how Mallard reacted in real life, too.)

The irony, of course, is that Brandi helps people who are elderly and infirm for a living - washing their backsides when they've soiled themselves in bed - but she can't be bothered to lift a finger for the guy who is about to die because of her selfishness.

Stuck

A homeless man lodged in a windshield.

* Grade: B

* Rated: R

* Running time: 85 minutes