THE DESPERATE HOUR

THE DESPERATE HOUR is a sometimes high-intensity thriller about a school shooting. It stars Naomi Watts as a recently widowed mother who races against time to save her teenage son who’s being held captive by an angry school shooter. Parts of the plot in THE DESPERATE HOUR are unbelievable and get a bit tiresome, but the performance by Naomi Watts is good, and the movie has a strong moral worldview overall, which stresses love, compassion, mercy, and even a prayer.

The story follows Amy Carr, a recent widow and mother of two, struggling to navigate life as best she can now as a single mother. The movie opens with Amy getting her children ready for school. She sees her young middle school aged daughter off to the school bus, then goes upstairs to make sure her teenage son, Noah, is awake. She knocks on his door, but he doesn’t answer. She opens the door but struggles to get inside because her son has blocked the door with his dresser. When Amy finally enters Noah’s room, it’s evident he’s not doing well since his father’s death. His bedroom is cluttered with clothes, and he refuses to get out of bed. Frustrated and still in mourning, Amy gives up. She decides to go on a morning jog and tells her son she will deal with his behavior when she returns.

It’s on her morning jog when the movie’s pace begins to heighten. In fact, the entire movie is shot as a series of scenes with Amy running through a wooded nature trail while on the phone with various people.

At first, Amy’s phone calls are light. She talks to her daughter at school learning that her daughter forgot to bring her art project to school. She calls the art studio. She chats to a friend. Her mother calls to make sure she’s doing okay and reminds her that she’s coming to visit her soon. Amy becomes even more frustrated that she can’t get one minute of peace to herself. So, she puts her phone on do not disturb mode. Invigorating nature shots with calming music fill the screen as Amy continues jogging.

Eventually, Amy jogs to a stream. She pulls up a photo of her deceased husband and listens to a saved voicemail from him recalling happier memoires of when he was alive, but this moment of tranquility doesn’t last long. Moments later, an Amber Alert flashes on her phone, informing her that her small town is on lockdown due to a school shooter at her son’s school. It is then that the desperate hour unfolds. Now deep in the wilderness, Amy races to get out of the hiking trail as fast as she can so she can get to her son’s school. As she leaps over tree roots and sprints through the forest, a new series of phone calls begin, but these are more urgent.

Through more phone calls, viewers learn Amy’s son is being held hostage by the shooter. The shooter was a cafeteria worker, who was made fun of in the past and has set out to seek revenge. Amy gets in touch with her son, who whispers to his mother on the phone to help him. Through a work connection, Amy obtains the phone number to the school shooter and calls him. When he gets on the line, she begs him not to hurt the young people and encourages him to remember there’s another way out of this, a better way. The shooter, desperate in his own way, listens to Amy because she’s not the police. Then, they get disconnected.

After a crazy long-wait time, a Lyft arrives and picks Amy up on the side of the road, right off the hiking trail. Once in the car, Amy’s cell phone struggles to stay alive. The police manage to get through to Amy and ask her to call the shooter back, so he can remain distracted long enough for them to get into the building and get the youth out safely.

The Lyft driver lets Amy borrow his phone. She calls the shooter back and tries to calm him down.

Can Amy succeed where the police have failed? Will she get through to the would-be shooter and save her son?

THE DESPERATE HOUR has a redeeming worldview with Amy fighting for justice and peace and with one police officer mentioning prayer as a solution to remain calm. However, the movie lacks originality. The entire movie takes place with Amy running through the woods. The plot is only revealed through various phone calls. Naomi Watts does an excellent job carrying out this emotional and physical role, but it does get tiresome to watch one woman running through the woods for over 60 minutes. Stunning nature shots and epic views of the fall foliage give the viewer a nice break from watching Amy jogging. However, the plot’s logistics are still too far-fetched to be believable. A mother happens to get the phone number of a school shooter, gets him on the phone and can hold him on the other line long enough for police to arrive on scene? It’s hard to believe this part of the storyline.

THE DESPERATE HOUR has a strong moral worldview. The mother character maintains the virtues of love, compassion and justice. She also displays the act of mercy when she gets the shooter on the phone and begs him to see another way out of the terrible situation he’s created. Also, a police officer at one point mentions prayer as a solution when he tries to calm down the mother.

However, THE DESPERATE HOUR has some brief foul language. Also, the movie isn’t suited for younger children or sensitive teenagers who might find the topic of school shootings too disturbing. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children for THE DESPERATE HOUR.