Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Escape at Dannemora Review

Escape at Dannemora (2018)
Mini-sereis - 7 episodes
Rent Escape at Dannemora on Amazon Video
Created by: Brett Johnson, Michael Tolkin
Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Patricia Arquette, Paul Dano, David Morse
Rated: TV-MA
Watch the trailer

Plot
A female prison employee in upstate New York becomes romantically involved with a pair of inmates and helps them escape.

Verdict
While this is a jail break movie, it's also about how people are vulnerable to manipulation and dropping their guard. Tension abounds as with any escape movie, but with a civilian helping them escape, that adds a new level. The acting is great, and this feels like an extended movie in style and quality.
Watch it.

Review
Based on a true story, this does prison break very well. There are plenty of escape movies, and this puts a slightly different spin on it with the manipulation of Tilly, an employee who becomes romantically involved with two incarcerated men. You get how they coerced her into helping them. She just wanted human contact and got that with these two men. She just doesn't realize they are getting something different out of it.

The acting is fantastic as are the characters. Richard Matt has a fair amount of freedom as he's been around a long time and he provides paintings for the incarcerated and guards alike. We don't know why these men are in prison until later in the series, and that changes our perception.

It's that history episode that drags the pacing. Episode six provides history for the main characters, and all of them end up looking worse, no one more than Tilly. It's an interesting episode, but it plays on emotions and wanting to know more. The episode could be cut and not affect the story.

The series doesn't stop once they escape, we get to see just how hard it is to survive after one escapes too, and that's not easy.

I like the music cues, but they can be overpowering. Many times a score shouldn't be noticed, but this stands out and it works.

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