Restraint (2008 film)

Last updated

Restraint
Restraint poster.jpg
Restraint poster
Directed byDavid Denneen
Written by Dave Warner
Produced by
Starring Stephen Moyer
Travis Fimmel
Teresa Palmer
Cinematography Simon Duggan
Edited by Toby Denneen
Rodrigo Balart
Music byElliott Wheeler
Production
companies
  • Filmgraphics Entertainment
  • Film Finance
Distributed byAccent Film Entertainment
Release dates
  • 19 August 2008 (2008-08-19)(United States)
  • 2 April 2009 (2009-04-02)(Australia)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Budget$5,000,000 [1]

Restraint is a 2008 Australian thriller film, directed by David Denneen, written by Dave Warner and starring Stephen Moyer, Travis Fimmel and Teresa Palmer. The film was shot on location around New South Wales, Australia in mid-2005. Working titles during production were Ravenswood, Guests and Power Surge. It also features a cameo by Vanessa Redgrave. In the film, a couple of fugitives take an estate owner hostage, complicating their flight from justice.

Contents

Plot

Two fugitives from justice, Dale and Ron, take hostage Andrew, an agoraphobic art dealer who might have a dark past of his own. All three soon find themselves participants in a game of survival.

Before the narrative begins, Ron has killed Dale's boss, the owner of a strip club. On the run, the couple kills a gas station attendant who sees the body in the trunk of their car. Stumbling across Andrew's magnificent country estate, the couple plans to hide out there until the search for them abates. Ron, impulsive and out of control, abuses and threatens to kill Andrew, but Dale intervenes. Andrew proposes to give them AU 40,000 dollars and valuable jewelry to aid their getaway. Someone, though, must go to the bank to retrieve the goods. Andrew suggests Dale do it, posing as his fiancée, Gabrielle. Dale, as Gabrielle, drives to town and twice enters the bank without creating suspicion.

While Dale is gone, Andrew tells Ron that Gabrielle had left him after having an affair with his father and being paid by him to leave; he subsequently hired a hit man to kill his father. To persuade Ron to leave him alive, he offers leverage in the form of a photo that proves he had his father killed. While allegedly retrieving the photo, Andrew manages to lock Ron in the cellar, but Ron escapes and regains the upper hand.

Dale returns and the couple prepares to leave. Ron again makes a move to kill Andrew; Dale, who has been partly seduced by Andrew and his way of life, grabs their shotgun and shoots at Ron, without realizing that he has left the gun unloaded. Ron knocks Dale out and leaves her in a locked car filling with exhaust, sadistically goading Andrew into braving his agoraphobia in order to save her. Andrew manages to save her and wound Ron; reviving, Dale deals Ron a death blow.

With Ron dead, Andrew moves to call the police. Dale stops him by re-assuming her pose as Gabrielle, and, prompted by Andrew, by telling him in Gabrielle's voice that she loves him. They have sex—again, with Dale coached to speak in Gabrielle's voice. Afterwards, Dale asks Andrew what would happen if Gabrielle came back while she's impersonating her. Andrew assures her Gabrielle is "gone", as we see him burning Gabrielle's passport, ambiguously suggesting he actually killed her. Later, Andrew plays Wagner downstairs alone and seems to celebrate, while Dale gazes forlornly out the house's top-floor window.

Cast

Production

Over half the budget came from the Film Finance Corporation. The film was shot in late 2005 near Goulburn and Camden in New South Wales, originally using the title Guests, then Ravenswood. Stephen Moyer was imported from the United Kingdom to support his two Australian co-stars. [1]

Release

The film was originally meant to be released in May 2006 by Accent Entertainment. Multiple test screenings resulted in the film's running time being reduced from 120 to 90 minutes, and the ending being changed to something more ambiguous. It eventually screened in one cinema in Sydney in April 2009. [1]

Related Research Articles

Ravenswood may refer to:

<i>24 Hours to Live</i> 2017 film

24 Hours to Live is a 2017 science fiction action thriller film directed by Brian Smrz and starring Ethan Hawke, Xu Qing, Paul Anderson, Liam Cunningham, and Rutger Hauer. It follows a career assassin who goes on a rampage to exact revenge and find redemption after he is mortally wounded and brought back to life for 24 hours using a newly developed technology. The film premiered at the Austin Film Festival on October 26, 2017, and was released on VOD and in select theaters on December 1, 2017.

<i>Cul-de-sac</i> (1966 film) 1966 British film by Roman Polanski

Cul-de-sac is a 1966 British black comedy psychological thriller film directed by Roman Polanski, written by Polanski and Gérard Brach, and starring Donald Pleasence, Françoise Dorléac, Lionel Stander, Jack MacGowran, Iain Quarrier, Geoffrey Sumner, Renée Houston, William Franklyn, Trevor Delaney, and Marie Kean. It also features Jacqueline Bisset in a small role, in her second film appearance. Polanski's second English-language feature, it follows two injured American gangsters who take refuge in the remote island castle of a young British couple in the north of England, spurring a series of mind games and violent altercations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teresa Palmer</span> Australian actress (born 1986)

Teresa Mary Palmer is an Australian actress. She began her career with roles in Bedtime Stories (2008), The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010), Take Me Home Tonight (2011), and I Am Number Four (2011). She received further recognition for starring in the films Warm Bodies (2013), Lights Out (2016), Hacksaw Ridge (2016), and Berlin Syndrome (2017). She also starred in, co-wrote, and co-produced the drama film The Ever After (2014), with her husband Mark Webber. From 2018 to 2022, Palmer starred as Diana Bishop in the supernatural drama series A Discovery of Witches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Travis Fimmel</span> Australian actor and model

Travis Fimmel is an Australian actor and former model. He is known for his role as Ragnar Lothbrok in the History Channel television series Vikings (2013–2017), and as Anduin Lothar in the live-action adaptation of Warcraft (2016). He also starred in the HBO Max science fiction series Raised by Wolves (2020–2022).

<i>Needle</i> (2010 film) 2010 Australian film

Needle is a 2010 Australian independent supernatural horror film starring Michael Dorman, Jessica Marais, Travis Fimmel, Trilby Glover, and Ben Mendelsohn, and directed by John V. Soto. Needle is structured as a murder mystery, with six distinct clues pointing to one of ten suspects; the trailer is intentionally misleading.

<i>2:22</i> (2017 film) 2017 film by Paul Currie

2:22 is a 2017 science fiction thriller film directed by Paul Currie, written by Nathan Parker and Todd Stein, and starring Michiel Huisman, Teresa Palmer and Sam Reid. The film's plot involves air traffic controller Dylan Branson, who, thanks to a mysterious anomaly at 2:22, prevented the collision of two aircraft and met Sarah, whose destinies appear to be tied to the time 2:22. The film was released in theaters and on VOD on June 30, 2017.

<i>Berlin Syndrome</i> (film) 2017 film by Cate Shortland

Berlin Syndrome is a 2017 psychological horror thriller film directed by Cate Shortland from a screenplay by Shaun Grant, based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Melanie Joosten. The film follows a young Australian photographer who travels to Germany, where she meets an attractive young English teacher. Waking up after a stormy night of passion with him, the photographer is suddenly taken hostage by her would-be lover.

<i>Open House</i> (2010 film) 2010 American film

Open House is a 2010 thriller film directed by Andrew Paquin. Was screened at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival. It was released on DVD in August 2010 in the United States by Lionsgate.

<i>One Eyed Girl</i> 2015 Australian film

One Eyed Girl is a 2015 Australian psychological thriller film directed by Nick Remy Matthews and starring Mark Leonard Winter, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, and Steve Le Marquand. Winter plays a troubled psychiatrist who joins a cult after one of his patients commits suicide. It premiered at the Austin Film Festival in October 2014 and was released in Australia in April 2015.

<i>Hotel Mumbai</i> 2018 action thriller film directed by Anthony Maras

Hotel Mumbai is a 2018 independent action thriller film directed by Anthony Maras and co-written by Maras and John Collee. An Indian-Australian-American co-production, it is inspired by the 2009 documentary Surviving Mumbai about the 2008 Mumbai attacks at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in India. The film stars Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi, Anupam Kher, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Jason Isaacs, Suhail Nayyar, Nagesh Bhosle, and Natasha Liu Bordizzo.

"Shiva" is the seventh episode and mid-season finale of the second season, and the 13th episode overall of the post-apocalyptic horror television series Fear the Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on May 22, 2016.

<i>Message from the King</i> (film) 2016 film

Message from the King is a 2016 revenge-action-thriller film directed by Fabrice Du Welz, and written by Stephen Cornwell and Oliver Butcher. The film is produced by Cornwell, David Lancaster and Simon Cornwell and stars Chadwick Boseman, Luke Evans, Teresa Palmer, and Alfred Molina. The film's plot revolves around Jacob King (Boseman), a man from Cape Town, South Africa who travels to Los Angeles in order to find his younger sister and after finding out she is dead, he works to avenge her death.

<i>Dreamland</i> (2019 American film) 2019 American film

Dreamland is a 2019 American period thriller film directed by Miles Joris-Peyrafitte from a screenplay by Nicolaas Zwart. The film stars Finn Cole, Margot Robbie, Travis Fimmel, Garrett Hedlund, Kerry Condon, Darby Camp and Lola Kirke.

<i>Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan</i> Australian war film about the Battle of Long Tan during the Vietnam War

Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan is a 2019 Australian war film about the Battle of Long Tan during the Vietnam War. It is directed by Kriv Stenders and stars Travis Fimmel.

Fortunate Son is a Canadian espionage drama television series, which premiered January 8, 2020 on CBC Television. The show is loosely based on the experiences of Mary Cox, the mother of co-executive producer Tom Cox, who helped American draft dodgers cross the border into Canada during the Vietnam War.

<i>Zone 414</i> 2021 American film by Andrew Baird

Zone 414 is a 2021 American science fiction neo-noir thriller film directed by Andrew Baird in his feature-film debut, and written by Bryan Edward Hill. It stars Guy Pearce, Matilda Lutz, Jonathan Aris and Travis Fimmel. The film is about a wealthy robot designer who hires a private investigator to find his adult daughter, who goes missing inside a walled city where humans can hire humanoid robots for sexual pleasure.

<i>No Exit</i> (2022 film) 2022 American film by Damien Power

No Exit is a 2022 American thriller film directed by Damien Power from a screenplay by Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari, based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Taylor Adams. It stars Havana Rose Liu as a recovering drug addict who discovers a kidnapping in progress while stranded at a rest stop during a blizzard. Danny Ramirez, David Rysdahl, Dale Dickey, and Dennis Haysbert co-star as the four suspects while Mila Harris plays the victim. No Exit was released on February 25, 2022, on Hulu by 20th Century Studios. It received mixed reviews from critics, who categorized it as a "reasonably diverting" popcorn movie.

References