Dir. Stuart Gordon, Canada/US, 2007, 94 mins.
Stuck's protagonist is a homeless man who, for most of the film, is pinned on the bonnet of a car with half of his body extending through the smashed windshield into the front seat. The car's young driver tries to hide the evidence of the bloody accident while the victim is still alive and begging for help. Laced with laughs from its improbability, this is a grotesque moral tale. Clever and far more than competent, Stuck is one of the discoveries of the festival.

Stuart Gordon has a loyal body of fans who have stuck with him since The Reanimator (1985). Exposure for Stuck on the festival circuit could expand that following. So could its appealing young cast and edgy irresistible humour. The film's uniqueness should help it break out of Canada and into a broader field. The high concept (and indelible image) of an innocent man 'crucified' on a car makes it eminently exportable.

The freak accident and its freakish aftermath are inspired by the true story of a nurse from near Fort Worth Texas who drove home with a man trapped in her windshield and waited three days for him to die. She is now serving fifty years in prison.

Gordon's film is set in a northern city (it was shot in St. John, New Brunswick) where Brandi (Mena Suvari) works in a nursing home and is told that she is up for a small promotion. In the same town, Tom Bardo (Stephen Rea) is downsized out of a job and evicted from his apartment before the drug-addled Brandi slams into him on her way home from a club.

John Strysik's tight, compelling script sets up a drama of suspense: can Tom survive with a windshield wiper stuck in his gut like a spear' And, if not, how will Brandi and her drug-dealer boyfriend, Rashid (Russell Hornsby) finish him off'

Direction by Gordon watches two dreary lives in a dreary town, and then seizes on the crash's aftermath with a tactility that oozes out of the screen. A director of theatre, he gets fine performances from a mostly no-name cast. Rea, always good as a hang-dog, plays a guy who's hit rock-bottom, and then hits a windshield.

As Brandi, Mena Suvari finds a nasty impatient greed beneath the façade of a caring nurse's aide, blaming the man in her windshield for threatening her promotion and knocking him unconscious when he honks her horn for help. Russell Hornsby has a deft comic touch as a gangster whose bravado vanishes at the sight of the writhing Rea.

Director of Photography Denis Maloney captures Tom's agony in the confined space of Brandi's garage. Sound by George Hannan makes the unease all too real. The print of Stuck screened in Toronto had a grey-blue tinge. The palette proved to be just right for the dismal location and grim story.

Production Company
Amicus Entertainment Limited (US)

International Sales
Cinetic Media (US)

Producers
Robert Katz
Jay Firestone
Ken Gord

Executive Producer
Sam Grana

Screenplay
John Strysik

Cinematographer
Denis Maloney

Editor
Andy Horvitch

Production Designer
Craig Lathrop

Sound
Georges Hannan

Music
Bobby Johnston

MainCast
Stephen Rea
Mena Suvari
Russell Hornsby
Rukiya Bernard
John Dunsworth

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