11:14 (2005) Movie Information:

11:14 (2005) Directed by: Greg Marcks 11:14 (2005) Written by: Greg Marcks 11:14 (2005) Cast: Hilary Swank, Rachael Leigh Cook, Patrick Swayze, Barbara Hershey, Colin Hanks, Henry Thomas, Ben Foster

11:14 (2005) U.S. Distributor: New Line Cinema 11:14 (2005) U.K. Distributor: Lionsgate

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11:14 (2005) Synopsis:

"11:14" tells the intricately connected story of a series of incidents that all converge one fateful evening – with life-altering effects. The story starts at 11:13 PM as Jack (Thomas) drives down the freeway en route to a late-night rendezvous with his girlfriend. One minute later, his car crashes into a mysterious stranger with seemingly fatal results. Jack attempts to hide the body, launching a backtrack through five different storylines that collide in a series of deadly and ironic twists.

11:14 (2005) Movie Review:

Fast and fairly engaging, this blackly comic thriller looks at a fateful moment in time from five intriguing perspectives. But in the end it feels a bit pointless.

1: A man (Thomas) is driving home when a dead body falls from a bridge and hits his car. 2: Three guys (Foster, Hanks and Sands) are joy-riding when they hit a girl in the road. But that's not the worst thing that happens. 3: A man (Swayze) trying to find his daughter stumbles across a body in a cemetery. 4: A guy (Hatosy) will do anything, including robbing a friend (Swank), to get money for his girlfriend's abortion. 5: A girl (Cook) tries to con a second boyfriend (Heron) out of some money.

With the titular time as the pivotal junction, there's a fatalism to each plot that makes them quite compelling. We know something horrible will happen at the designated hour. And as the script weaves in each character's story, the picture gets increasingly clear. But that's about it; besides commenting on intertwined lives, nothing carries much resonance. These are all fairly shallow people who callously break the law for both good and bad reasons.

There isn't a weak performance--these are recognisable people floundering in ludicrous situations that put life and death in the balance. Swank is especially good as the trashy shop clerk who reluctantly goes along with her friend's idiotic plan. Cook is also good as the person who emerges as the film's central thread, but her tale comes last, which is too late to draw us in. In the end, without a sense of depth or meaning, it feels repetitive and dull.

Writer-director Marcks gleefully stirs in lots of grisly, morbid irony, but he also indulges in corny plotting and improbable coincidences. Essentially this is an exercise in clever writing, editing and direction. It owes quite a bit to Amores Perros, but never captures any of that film's urgency. The darkly comical tone makes it thoroughly entertaining, and the crisp, edgy pacing keeps us gripped to the various individual odysseys. But it disappears with a shrug when it ends.

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11:14 (2005) review written by: Rich Cline