Escape from Tomorrow Review

Watching Escape from Tomorrow, the much buzzed about film from last year’s Sundance Film Festival, I was reminded of a test Gene Siskel coined for judging movies.  The test is this: “Is this film more interesting than a documentary of the same actors having lunch?”  For Escape from Tomorrow there has to be some version of that rule where instead of the cast eating lunch, it’s the behind the scenes story of how the film got made.  The film, shot without permission at Disney resorts, certainly has audacity when you think of all the work that had to go into making it.  Unfortunately, all that effort went into making a film that is unwatchable.

Escape from Tomorrow is about a married father of two (Roy Abramsohn) who finds out he’s lost his job just as his family begins the last day of their vacation at the resort.  As the day wears on, he slowly loses his mind, leading to bizarre, Lynchian imagery and scenes.  What sinks the film is the complete lack of any cohesion.  Is the film supposed to be a black comedy?  A satire of the contrived pleasure of theme parks?  Horror about the dark side to “the happiest place on earth”?  The longer the film goes, the more it falls apart.  They even introduce science fiction late into the movie (it may still be taking place in his head).  It feels like it changes dramatically every five to ten minutes.

One of the primary problems of this film is that there is no one to sympathize with.  In theory it should be on the father, but he quickly spends that good will by leering at and stalking two teenage girls (Danielle Safady and The Americans’ Annet Mahendru).  Perhaps it is commenting on how vacations can bring out the worst in us, but doesn’t work because we can’t see things his way.  It shouldn’t be this hard.  He’s stressed out trying to have fun on an expensive vacation, but he’s burdened by the thoughts that this trip cost him money he now desperately needs to stay afloat while he looks for work elsewhere.  That’s all you need for a baseline, and knock it off with him being creepy.

Also, perhaps to avoid legal trouble, they sometimes blink.  The only time I remember Disney said aloud by name is bleeped out.  Sometimes it feels like they go out of their way to avoid saying it.  Probably the biggest cop out is that some scenes are clearly shot in front of a green screen.  It tampers the danger that garnered this film so much of its buzz.  It is amazing how much of what is shot on site looks like a legitimate movie, but clearly they couldn’t quite get what they wanted.

Some movies, like Fitzcaraldo and Apocalypse Now (whose backstories were made into documentaries), have behind the scenes stories that rival what the film audiences saw.  Sadly, Escape from Tomorrow is one of those films where the story about how it got made is miles beyond what we ended up seeing.  The characters are horrible, the story is incoherent and there a little too much gross out stuff that isn’t earned (a scene late in the film in a bathroom is the low point).  Ultimately the biggest problem is likely that to get this any release, it had to be neutered, leaving a pointless mess in its wake.  For such a risky endeavor, it’s a shame that exciting behind the scenes story never made it to the screen.

Grade: D-