Big Driver

Solid star turn, eerie production values, even a killer ending.

Big Driver is slimmer in content, as well as form, than “Misery,” but it is nonetheless gripping. The television adaptation, however, doesn’t adjust for the power of a graphic depiction of assault, rape and sodomy. And that violence, when juxtaposed with the jaunty, Cabot Cove tone, undercuts the movie’s message of payback and empowerment.

A few horror-story cliches seep in, but with Bello playing a character who is strikingly unglamorous and at times not even sympathetic, Big Driver should deliver for its audience.

Even cameos by Olympia Dukakis and Joan Jett can't make up for a silly story that hangs way too much on a sass-talking GPS and Tess narrating unnecessary exposition out loud to her bemused-looking house cat. [17 Oct 2014, p.64]

It’s too simple and straightforward for its own good. Adapted by screenwriter Richard Christian Matheson, the narrative travels from A to B to C with nary an unexpected twist or subtle discovery.

While Bello is a gifted actress (and this really plays like a one-character study much of the time), as vehicles go, it’s more of a garbage truck than anything else.