Containment (2015) Louise Brealey, Lee Ross, Pippa Nixon, Sheila Reid, Andrew Leung Movie Review

Containment (2015)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Containment (2015)

Attack in the Block

When Mark (Lee Ross) woke up he found his windows and doors glued shut along with the water and electricity turned off. Confused he discovers he is not alone as everyone in the apartment block is in the same situation but thanks to a couple of the younger tenants they have managed to smash through joining walls so that they are not alone. Outside of their windows all they can see is men in orange body suits seeming to quarantine the place. But they are not their only concern as now these strangers need to get on to survive.

Can you imagine how frightening that would be to wake up one day and find you have been made a prisoner in your own home with all the exits sealed shut from the outside. It is that premise which makes "Containment" because it immediately makes you think about how you would cope. And with this being set in an apartment block it brings together that element of diversity as you have different people, young and old forced to work together and get on.

The thing is that whilst "Containment" has this interesting set up it has a style which isn't going to appeal to everyone, an intermittent quietness interrupted by action and humour. Basically it feels like it is trying to cater for too many different people so that whilst it delivers some action and humour it then also tries to be thought provoking and for me it is a blend which doesn't set comfortably together and lead to it being intermittently entertaining.

Now I don't know what the budget for "Containment" was but it has that feel of a small budget British movie with a cast of actors who some you might recognize but their names avoid you. Yet credit where it is due as the director has done a solid job of using the limited location, avoiding the trend for being too artsy although once in a while stuffing in some needless scenic shots of say a tree at night for no real reason. In a strange sort of compliment way the fact that visually "Containment" is uncomplicated works for me.

What this all boils down to is that "Containment" certainly has some positives and it is surprisingly engaging. But at the same time its seeming desire to appeal to everyone is its undoing as until it settles on what it is trying to be it ends up intermittently entertaining and engaging.


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