Hallow Road (15)

Shortly after 2am, paramedic Maddie Finch receives a panicked telephone call from her 18-year-old daughter Alice, who hasn't returned home after a heated argument that ended with the teenager storming out of the house and stealing her father's car. Maddie learns that her daughter has been involved in a hit-and-run on Hallow Road and a young girl now lies motionless on the asphalt. Maddie jumps into her car with husband Frank in the driver's seat and they race to the scene.

LondonNet Film Review

Hallow Road (15) Film Review from LondonNet

With his tonally ambitious fourth feature, Bafta-winning British Iranian filmmaker Babak Anvari tests how far parents will go to protective their offspring from the calamitous but necessary consequences of their reckless actions. Shot predominantly as a two-hander between Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys as characters speed through the night to the scene of a road accident, Hallow Road narrowly avoids becoming a car crash itself when screenwriter William Gillies performs a handbrake narrative U-turn in the film’s disorienting final stretch…

This genre gear shift, teased by cinematographer Kit Fraser in the opening montage, works surprisingly well, galvanised by wholly committed on-screen performances from the two leads and heart-tugging vocals from Megan McDonnell on the other end of a telephone call that plays out in agonising real-time. The central conceit is strongly reminiscent of Steven Knight’s 2013 thriller Locke starring Tom Hardy, and Anvari’s picture gnaws hungrily on the claustrophobia inside a vehicle enveloped by the darkness of the witching hour.

Stylistic flourishes, such as projecting data from the sat nav onto Pike’s face during a pivotal telephone exchange, generate bursts of kinetic energy while characters are seat-belted in submission. Exterior visuals are noticeably in conflict with the movement of the car’s steering wheel during one scene but otherwise, Hallow Road sustains the illusion of relentless onward travel into the night, bookmarked by a terrifically effective interlude bathed in the blood red of a traffic signal.

Shortly after 2am, paramedic Maddie Finch (Pike) receives a panicked telephone call from her 18-year-old daughter Alice (McDonnell), who hasn’t returned home after a heated argument that ended with the teenager storming out of the house and stealing her father’s car. Through whimpers and sobs, Maddie learns that her daughter has been involved in a hit-and-run on Hallow Road and a young girl now lies motionless on the asphalt. Maddie jumps into her car with husband Frank (Rhys) in the driver’s seat and they race to the scene while the mother coaches Alice through CPR.

Heart-stopping seconds pass and Frank eventually orders his daughter to stop performing chest compressions and get back into the car. “I have to put our daughter first,” he snarls at Maddie, whose medical training instinctively prioritises the wellbeing of the patient. Tension escalates as Frank and Maddie find themselves on opposite sides of a moral dilemma about protecting Alice from police scrutiny.

Hallow Road milks suspense from a simple premise that veers into the realms of the fantastical and otherworldly. Pike and Rhys are expertly matched and they relish a bruising power struggle between conflicted parents. Clip a child’s wings as they attempt to fly the nest and they will fall. With a sickening thud.

– Sarah Lee