Gone - DVD review - Pocket-lint

Can the Brits make a decent thriller out of Gone?

2 August 2007 0:00 GMT / By Dan Hall

Gone is a low budget Brit thriller that sees a post university backpacking holiday turn into “Dead Calm in the desert” for two 20-something love birds.

Evans (best known for his work in series two of Teachers) plays Alex, a ginger Scouser – it’s not often that you hear that description of a leading man – who heads out to Australia to meet his girlfriend Sophie (Warner) on the east coast.

Things as you might expect take a turn for the grizzly however when the happy couple meet Taylor (Mechlowicz), a seemingly charming American who offers to give them a lift across the Outback in his beat up station wagon. Three soon becomes a crowd though when Taylor reveals his true intentions, and the chances of Alex and Sophie getting out of the desert alive appear to be going … going … gone.

In his first outing behind the camera, bin man turned director Ringan Ledwidge builds the tension slowly but effectively, making clever use of ominous portents and the hostile Australian Outback (shot beautifully by Ben Seresin).

Mechlowicz is the pick of the acting talent, showing a nice blend of charm and menace, but Warner - who was married to Colin Farrell for about five minutes as a teenager - and Evans fail to convince as a couple, and the overall lack of gore will be a let down for those of you (us included) hoping for more Wolf Creek gruesomeness.

Due to its (surprisingly) disappointing performance at the worldwide box office, Universal have decided to cut their losses with this lazy DVD release, adding only six deleted scenes and a perfunctory “Making of” featurette.

Director Ledwidge spends most of the time complaining about the oppressive heat that plagued the shoot, while lead man Evans makes insightful comments about the wilderness such as “It’s bad … there’s like … nothing there!”

As normal, the deleted scenes bring little extra to the party, and it is easy to see why they were chopped from the original cut which flew by at a rollicking pace in only 88 minutes.

Verdict

Mixing elements of the gruesome Aussie horror flick Wolf Creek and the recent Peter Falconio murder case, Gone is an intermittently tense psychological thriller that eventually loses its way in the clichéd final third.

Rating: 15
Staring: Shaun Evans, Amelia Warner, Scott Mechlowicz
Directed by: Ringan Ledwidge
Extras: Making Of Featurette. Deleted Scenes

Score

Review Recap

Price as reviewed: £20
The good: Ledwidge builds the tension slowly but effectively, Mechlowicz is the pick of the acting talent, showing a nice blend of charm and menace, Ben Seresin shoots the hostile Australian outback with a keen eye
The bad: The clichéd final third, a disappointing lack of Wolf Creek-style gore, Warner and Evans fail to convince as a couple
Quick verdict: Gone is an intermittently tense psychological thriller that eventually loses its way in the clichéd final third
Score