As the saying goes, to err once is human, twice is stupidity and three times is choice. So, we can say that Confined, a film that hits theaters this Thursday, the 29th, goes beyond the limits of stupidity — it is consciously bad. After all, this production directed by David Yarovesky ( Brightburn ) is the third version of the same story, bad in all of them.
The first is the Argentine original, from 2019 ( 4×4 ), while the second is the Brazilian remake with Chay Suede ( A Jaula ). Confined, thus, is the North American adaptation that tells the story of a thief (Bill Skarsgård) who breaks into a car to try to get out of a very bad financial situation. What he doesn’t expect is that the car becomes a kind of prison, with the owner of the vehicle (Anthony Hopkins) conducting a terrible psychological game.
The original idea by Argentinians Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat is a good one — after all, if it weren’t, it wouldn’t have gotten this far. It’s interesting to see this person trying to escape from inside a car, something trivial, while the audience wants to decipher what happens to the owner.
However, the fun only lasts during the first act, when the sadistic and psychological horror game is established. The dynamics are interesting and you, as a viewer, are naturally interested in it. But just putting in a dynamic of this type is not enough, as films like Saw has shown over time (and at the box office).
Confined : fruit of instability
The problem with Confinado — as well as with A Jaula and also with 4×4 — is when the script needs to develop some idea, some purpose. And the way this narrative finds to prove useful in some sense is by adding a political aspect to the equation, trying to understand how those two characters exist socially. The criminal always living on the margins, while the other lives well, but is held hostage by the violence around him.
The reflection originally made in the script by Cohn and Duprat, and continued by Michael Arlen Ross, does not have a solid basis — and, as a result, it falls apart. The characters are exaggeratedly flat and symmetrical, coming from a basic idea of what is good and what is evil, what is revenge, what is social war and, mainly, the economic universe.
At the time of The Cage, it was noticeable how Brazilian filmmakers tried to ride the wave of political polarization in the country. Now, Yarovesky tries the same thing and with the same paleness, simplifying everything around such profound discussions. And do you know what’s worse? None of this was necessary. Confined, like the other two films, could have been a good and effective survival film — and that’s it. By trying to go further, it fell behind. This is the fate of this cinema that is afraid of being just entertainment or terrified of leaving things between the lines.
It’s the worst that cinema can offer. And neither Hopkins nor Skarsgård can save us.
