P2 (2007) ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Franck Khalfoun
Rachel Nichols, Wes Bentley
A woman working overtime in a Park Avenue office building finds herself trapped in an underground parking garage on Christmas Eve, with only a vicious black dog and a homicidal maniac for company. A woman-in-peril exploitation thriller from a story by Alexandre Aja, who made the French slasher flick "High Tension". Intense and bloody, but ultimately kind of ridiculous, with Wes Bentley stealing a page from the Dennis Hopper book of demented bad behavior. There's virtually no nudity, but Rachel Nichols' cleavage gets plenty of close-up attention. (She spends most of the movie running around the garage in a chic, low-cut dress.) And the focus on the woman's victimization is a little disturbing. It's not hard to imagine one segment of the audience being repelled by it and another being turned on. Jodie Foster has gotten into these kinds of situations, too, the last few years, but Jodie's characters would never take this much shit, or wait as long to start getting even. Erica Bain would wipe the parking lot floor with this guy.
