The Desperate Hour
Director: Phillip Noyce
Year Released: 2021
Rating: 1.5
Single mother Amy (Naomi Watts) takes a Friday off from work to go for a jog, and while she's running and taking (and making) dozens of phone calls, she hears that there's been a shooting at the school her son Noah (Colton Gobbo) and daughter go to ... and the police suspect her son is involved. If you're going to make a movie that's a one-person show you could do far worse than casting Watts - who is a very capable actress - but the material here is thin, and much of it is her having a panic attack while limping around foliage. Part of the "suspense" is wondering if her kid is the active shooter - he's a "depressed teen" who lost his Father in a car accident a year ago - and then when she "takes matters into her own hands" later on ... that could have been disastrous. I'm actually more curious about what set off the cafeteria worker to go to the extreme, but that aspect of the movie isn't even considered.