Hours

Hours is an low budget indy (4 million) starring Paul Walker and directed by Eric Heisserer (The Thing 2011, Final Destination 5).  It is set within a hospital during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Nolan (Walker) has just lost his wife in child birth and his very premature baby girl is placed in a ventilator to aid breathing.  The hospital is evacuated as the city is flooded and Nolan is left behind to care for his daughter as conditions go from bad to worse.

There was a lot I appreciated about this movie.  Being low budget you need to be clever about things and as the entire story was set within the hospital it was not only a great way to reduce set & location costs but created a nice claustrophobic feel.  Walker showed a lot of depth in this role - I think I would say it's the best performance I have ever seen from him. (R.I.P)   With the power out he must keep the ventilator going with a crank generator and dying backup battery which becomes one of the main elements of the story as he can only leave the room for minutes at a time before having to return to re-charge.

Despite the above positives I found myself getting a little bored at times.  The generator was a realistic and interesting element but it almost became the entire movie.  A few other things were thrown in the mix - a stray dog, some violent looters but that's about everything.  I'm not sure if this was based on a true story, nothing was noted at the start or end of the film.  If it was I can understand sticking to the truth, but if not some extra story elements would have kept up the pace and cured the boredom.

I wouldn't rush out to see this one unless you're a big Walker fan.  If there's nothing else on the cards give it a go, it's not terrible.

6/10

IMDB Info