A bald, tattooed and absolutely shredded Taron Egertongoes on the run with his young daughter in remote New Mexico inShe Rides Shotgun. Adapted from the award-winning novel by author Jordan Harper, the gritty crime thriller also showcases a stellar performance from Ana Sophia Heger as a child trying to survive a truly harrowing predicament.She Rides Shotgungrips when addressing family turmoil, as a young girl learns deadly skills while trusting a man who has been completely absent from her life. Unfortunately, the film goes off the rails in a climax that makes little sense except to tick the requisite overblown action boxes.
As the story begins, 11-year-old Polly Huff (Heger) waits to be picked up by her mother after an ordinary school day. She stares longingly as her classmates hug their parents and go home for warm comfort. Polly’s soon alone with a concerned teacher wondering if she needs to make a call. Polly tells her not to worry; Mom will surely be coming soon. But her wait takes a startling turn when an unfamiliar red car screeches to a halt.
Bloody Family Bonds
She Rides Shotgun
Nathan Mcclusky (Egerton) beckons his wary daughterto get in the car. Polly hasn’t seen her father in years, and she has some questions: Where is her mother? When did he get out of prison? Nathan rushes Polly into the car with a promise that everything is all right. He was just released, and seeing her was his first priority. An uneasy Polly notices a shattered front window and loose wires under the steering wheel.
Nathan drives Polly to a busy intersection near an airport. She’s frightened when he takes her packed luggage from the trunk. Nathan abandons the car and whisks Polly to a nearby motel, where his first order of business is to bleach and cut her long hair. Polly clutches her teddy bear, as the situation is obviously grave. Nathan grabs a baseball bat for his first lesson, telling Polly that she must be ready to act if they encounter anyone tattooed with blue lightning bolts.
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ScreenwritersBen Collins and Luke Piotrowski (Siren, The Night House)establish tension and mystery from Polly’s innocent perspective. She knows that her father is in some kind of trouble, but Polly’s still drawn to him out of pure necessity. A child can’t fathom the horrors that led to Nathan’s drastic intervention, but her only option is to have faith that Nathan has good intentions. The cruelest reveal comes when Polly watches the news as a haggard Nathan sleeps: He lied to Polly about her mother. Now how can she believe anything he says?
The plot comes into focus with the introduction of Detective John Park (Rob Yang), who’s been assigned to hunt Nathan down and recover Polly. An amber alert has been issued alleging that Polly has been kidnapped by a dangerous killer, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Polly’s terrified reaction to learning her mother’s fate forces Nathan to come clean about the awful reality of their predicament, but it also marks a drastic change in how he communicates with her. This early exposition rivets, because there can be no more coddling.
A Father Protects
Director Nick Rowland (Calm with Horses) masterfully depicts Nathan and Polly’s growing bondunder extreme duress. He smartly takes his foot off the narrative pedal and gives them space in an engrossing second act. All the cards are now on the table, as they’re surrounded by vile murderers. The shadowy protagonist has been given a “green light” to execute Polly for Nathan’s actions, and she must become his partner if there’s any hope of escape. This means that Polly has to help Nathan in ways that don’t always involve beating attackers to bloody pulps. you’re able to’t help but feel a sense of endearment as Polly counts and does simple math to calculate their meager resources.
Nathan admits that he doesn’t really know anything about Polly. What’s her favorite color? What does Polly want to be when she grows up? Questions normally answered through years of normal parenting are delivered directly as Nathan’s guilt consumes him. He has robbed Polly of her childhood, and Nathan fears that Polly will embrace the violence that shaped him. He desperately wants to preserve some semblance of innocence, and cannot allow that to happen even under dire circumstances. Scenes of Polly weeping and cradling her teddy as blood continues to spill roots her character in a compelling fragility. Egerton and Heger have a tremendous dynamic in their tender and brutal moments together. It is the film’s great strength, one that’s almost wasted in a bewildering finale.
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She Rides Shotgun’s action isplausible, until the curtain drops on the puppet master pulling every string. What had been a convincing primary arc explodes with unrealistic developments, and the disappointing descent into open warfare in a staged setting looks dramatically out of place given the earlier context.Rowland sets off every firecracker at oncem when a more focused endingwould have better served the intriguing protagonists. That said,She Rides Shotgun’slasting accomplishment is allowing Heger to shine. She’s a talented actress with a bright future ahead.
She Rides Shotgunis a production of Fifth Season, Makeready, Waypoint Entertainment, and Super Frog. It will have a limited theatrical release on August 1st from Lionsgate.
