DVD Reviews

Right At Your Door

• Rating:
• Director: Chris Gorak
• Starring: Rory Cochrane
• Details:

Brad (Cochrane) and Lexi (McCormack) go about their normal daily business on a typical morning, with Lexi preparing for work and Brad trying to be a domesticated house husband. Soon after Lexi goes to work, Brad hears an emergency radio broadcast with news of a dirty bomb having gone off in downtown LA, resulting in chaos on the streets. With Brad unable to reach his wife, he returns to the house and boards it up, only to see her return after being exposed to the deadly chemical gases. Films with this type of intimacy (i.e. small budget, therefore minimum number of locations) generally depend heavily on performance; something that RAYD does wholeheartedly well, with Cochrane and McCormack giving truly outstanding performances in every sense of the word. Cochrane, switching between paranoia and loving husband almost effortlessly, makes it hard for you to take your eyes off the screen - as does McCormack, who plays worried, loving and resentful simultaneously, nailing each emotion. Writer/director Gorak obviously has the bigger picture in mind; sniping at the current government, posing numerous what-ifs and managing to shock with the basic realism of it all - his point being that this very probably could happen. It's overflowing with unbearable tension, Gorak's intrusive handheld camera running around with the characters and adding to the generally valid air of proceedings. Plot wise, RAYD predictably falls away at the seams towards the end, serving us a somewhat predictable and sloppily handled conclusion. That said, the achievement by the filmmakers here is unparalleled for a budget of this size, and that is remarkable in itself. Claustrophobic, political, tense and brilliantly acted, Right at Your Door is well worth a rent at the very least.

Review by Mike Sheridan