Don't Breathe

Don't Breathe is a curious entry in the thriller genre because it really plays with the audience's allegiance in terms of which characters we're rooting for. It shifted for me a couple times throughout the film. Regardless, this is one effective white knuckle thriller.

Rocky (played by Jane Levy) is so desperate to leave her toxic and abusive home where she lives with her Mom, her mom's terrible boyfriend and her daughter, that she has resorted to robbing houses with her criminal boyfriend Money (played by Daniel Zovatto) and friend Alex (played by Dylan Minnette), who is secretly in love with Rocky. Alex's dad works for a security company and the three use that connection to gain keys and security codes to access other's houses. Money gets a tip that there is an old guy (played by Stephen Lang) who lives alone in an otherwise deserted neighborhood who rumor has it is sitting on at least $300,000. Seeing a quick ticket out of town, Rocky agrees to take part in the robbery. Alex is harder to convince but eventually agrees. While staking out the house, they discover the man is blind. That night, they break into the house through the only window without bars and set about trying to find the blind man's loot. Shortly after they break in, the man awakens and discovers them, or at least one of them since he is unsure how many there are. This begins a game of cat and mouse between the Blind Man and the three intruders as they try to get out of the house while eluding the Blind Man and in the process, discovers he has some deep, dark secrets of his own. 

Director Fede Alvarez, who also wrote the film with Rodo Sayagues, strikes a surprising level of moral ambiguity for the film. All through it, I found myself questioning who I should be rooting for in this scenario. The film manages to create some sympathy for Rocky, who is doing the robberies to make some quick cash to leave town with her younger sister, as well as Alex who is conflicted about doing these robberies as well, but goes through it out of his love and loyalty for Rocky. Money, on the other hand might as well have dead meat tattooed on his forehead. But at the same time, the Blind Man (that's literally how he's referred to in the movie, he doesn't even have a name), lives alone mourning the death of his daughter and is also sympathetic at least for the first third of the movie anyway. Then there is a shocking revelation and then another shocking revelation that makes it clear that the Blind Man is even worse than the people who are robbing him. In retrospect, I feel like the filmmakers went a bit too far with that in painting the Blind Man as a monster. I wish they had left it a bit more even and made the audience question themselves and let the characters exist in more of a morally gray area for the entire film.

Stephen Lang gives a stellar performance as the Blind Man, giving both an emotional weight to the part as well as being physically intimidating as a man who is quite resourceful and frightening despite not being able to see. Jane Levy and Dylan Minnette were also quite good in their roles. Despite myself, I did want to see Rocky get out of the house if for no other reason than the sake of her younger sister. Dylan Minnette also managed to evoke a lot as Alex, who it is clear is only a part of this because he loves Rocky and I did worry about their safety as the movie went on, even though I knew I shouldn't have. They brought this on themselves and broke the law. But yet, in the end I found myself rooting for them to get out of the house and that really started to mess with my head and idea of moral code. They're robbers, breaking into the house of a as far as they know innocent, blind man and this movie is making my sympathize and worry about them. In that regard, well done filmmakers and actors.  

I previously mentioned in my Wait Until Dark review that the premise of this movie reminded me of that one. I will admit the premise is similar in the sense that three intruders invade the home of a blind person to steal something. In Wait Until Dark it was a doll stuffed with heroin. In this film it's $300,000 in cash. However, aside from that basic plot outline and that at one point both blind people turn off all the lights to even the playing field, the films have a lot of differences as well. In fact, this film is almost the inverse, with the Blind Man being the villain and the robbers being the heroes, in a twisted way. 

Overall, Don't Breathe was a very effective thriller that has a twisty-turny plot that left me questioning who I should be rooting for several times throughout the film, with each new twist changing it. As I was leaving the theatre, one of the other audience members asked me, "So, were they the good guys or the bad guys?"

"I don't know, I'm still trying to figure that out myself," I responded as we walked out of the theatre.