Wrecked

Echoing Danny Boyle's 127 Hours, filmmaker Michael Greenspan's Wrecked tells the story of a solitary man's desperate struggle to survive in the wilderness—although instead of being trapped in a desert cave with his leg pinned beneath a rock, the unnamed protagonist (Adrien Brody) here awakens in a crashed car with two dead men on a remote slope in a dense forest. Unable to remember how he got there or even who he is, the man works to free himself from a crushed dashboard. After finally extricating himself, he tries to get to safety, dragging a badly injured leg, while suffering along the way from occasional frightening hallucinations and experiencing sudden hazy recollections—which together with a gun and pile of cash in the vehicle—suggest he might be a criminal on the run. To make matters worse, he must also avoid a hungry mountain lion. Greenspan lacks Boyle's visual verve, while Brody's one-note intensity grows tedious compared to James Franco's flamboyant Oscar-nominated turn. Add to that the fact that the ultimate revelation of who the guy is and how he wound up in the crash is somewhat of a letdown, and Wrecked comes across as distinctly second-best. Optional. (F. Swietek)