Reviewed By: Flickman
After watching Detained, I honestly couldn’t decide whether I liked it, hated it, or just thought it was ok. It’s definitely not a great film by any stretch, but it’s also not the worst thing I’ve ever seen. There were a few elements I liked, but far more that I didn’t. I mainly gave it a chance because the premise sounded interesting enough, and I generally enjoy most of the actors involved.
The film takes place almost entirely in one location: a police station. Normally, I don’t mind movies that are confined to a single setting, but there has to be a strong story to carry it. I wouldn’t say Detained has a ‘bad’ storyline, because in theory it could have been a really good movie. Unfortunately, it completely drops the ball on one of the most important aspects: character development. There is virtually none.
The film begins with a woman named Rebecca, played by Abbie Cornish, who wakes up in a police station with no memory of what happened the night before. Detectives tell her there is blood on her car, implying she may have hit someone while driving drunk. Detective Moon (Moon Bloodgood) places Rebecca in a holding cell, where she is attacked by another inmate. During the struggle, the detective drops her gun, and Rebecca accidentally shoots her instead of the inmate. Detective Avery (Laz Alonso) rushes in, and as he begins questioning Rebecca, she slowly realizes that nothing is quite what it seems.
From this point on, the film starts to fall apart. Honestly, it kind of already was. The police station doesn’t look remotely realistic, Rebecca is allowed to wander around freely, and there isn’t another officer in sight.
I can overlook the fact that the station looks fake, since they mention it’s under renovation. I can even excuse the lack of other officers by assuming it’s a very small town with limited personnel. What I couldn’t buy, though, was how casually Rebecca is treated. If she’s a suspect in a serious crime, why isn’t she handcuffed? Why is she allowed to go to the bathroom alone? When she comes back, she casually walks in like she’s friends with the detective, and he even offers her a donut. I can’t imagine that scenario happening in any police station, ever.
I’m going to mention a few spoilers here, so stop reading if you want to avoid them. That said, considering how weak the movie is, I don’t think I’m really ruining much.
What truly makes Detained fall flat is that once Rebecca realizes everything is staged, we never get a clear or satisfying explanation as to why. All of the characters are running a scam because they believe Rebecca has money belonging to someone who’s dead. That person is supposedly Detective Avery’s brother – or someone like a brother. They talk about this character and Rebecca says she “loved him”, yet they never thoroughly explain the relationship between him and Rebecca. We’re just told that Rebecca has his money and they want her to transfer it to them.
Then the movie drops another twist: Rebecca is secretly a killer named Jovan, someone everyone fears. None of the scammers even know who Jovan really is, only that he’s some kind of mythical ghost-like murderer. As a result, we’re left guessing about Rebecca’s entire backstory and who she’s actually supposed to be.
I left out quite a bit, but the bottom line is that half of what’s happening in this movie is never properly explained. With stronger character development and clearer motivations, this could have been a much better film. Instead, too much is missing.
To sum it up in one sentence: the idea was good, the acting was solid, but the storyline and execution completely missed the mark. After about an hour, I couldn’t wait for it to be over. It wasn’t bad enough to turn off, and I did want to see how it ended, but my interest faded fast. And as for the ending, it was far from satisfying.
Overall, I’d probably recommend skipping Detained. There were some things I did like, but the bad probably outweigh the good in this film. I won’t give this the death penalty as I don’t think it deserves that, but it’s probably right on the border and I’m sure some people will say that it does…. I’ll let you decide for yourself.
Overall Verdict: It does have a good cast and an interesting premise, but the execution ruins it. There's too many details left out to really make this worth watching.
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