09 February 2013

Amber Alert



This is an independent film released in 2012. I watched this on Netflix Instant. The main characters are Sam and Nate, two friends who like to go on adventures with each other. Sam's brother, Caleb is taping this one. 
They start out to drive somewhere to spend the day. They pass an Amber Alert sign that is posted above the highway.  Nate immediately spots the car and Sam immediately gets obsessed with following the car. Nate tries to blow it off as it being just another child custody case gone wrong.  Sam calls the police who are slow in responding.  While snooping around the car at a gas station when the car owner is inside, Sam spies a little girl in the back seat. Sam is on a mission to help the child no matter what. 

It seemed to me a majority of the film is Sam and Nate screaming back and forth at each other, which was annoying to me.  Also Nate is constantly yelling at Sam to stop and she does not listen.  
I liked that the movie did move along and not go off track.  It seems a lot of independent films lose their focus and this one didn't.  It was solely about the Amber Alert and three people in a car trying to respond to it.  I also liked that the ending was not what I was expecting, although it did seem to just end all at once.  
I thought it was a good decision to not show the little girl throughout the movie and let you kind of wonder here and there if she was real.   Good ending.  Not a blockbuster film, but I enjoyed it and would watch it again.
I give it a shaky 4 stars.