High-Rise

J.G. Ballard's 1975 novel High-Rise employed the setting of a massive apartment complex to create an allegory about class warfare, with the elitist wealthy living amidst luxurious amenities on the building's upper floors, while the less financially fortunate are restricted to lower floors and conspicuously poorer services. Unfortunately, filmmaker Ben Wheatley's adaptation places greater emphasis on violence than social commentary. Dr. Robert Laing (Tom Hiddleston) moves into an apartment on the 25th floor of the building—conveniently between the upper and lower regions—and quickly makes the acquaintance of an attractive single mother (Sienna Miller), as well as that of an aggressive filmmaker (Luke Evans) and his pregnant wife (Elisabeth Moss). Laing is also introduced to the building's architect, the appropriately named Mr. Royal (Jeremy Irons), who designed the structure to be a self-contained environment where people need not venture outside. However, this oddball attempt at social engineering goes awry, with grisly crimes being committed as the lower floor tenants rebel against their putrid living conditions by taking aim at their upstairs neighbors. High-Rise is a wild, noisy affair that benefits from a distinctive production design that recreates the best and worst of 1970s style (there's also some wonderfully droll hamming by Irons), but in the end Ballard's brilliant dystopian vision is reduced here to an unsubtle, chaotic smackdown. Not a necessary purchase. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by star Tom Hiddleston, director Ben Wheatley, and producer Jeremy Thomas, the production featurettes “Breaking Down High-Rise & Its Tenants” (15 min.), “Building the World of High-Rise: 70's Style” (9 min.), “Heady Special Effects” (4 min.), and “Bringing Ballard to the Big Screen” (4 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a disappointing adaptation of Ballard's novel.] (P. Hall)