Most of the chat about No Escape seems to be focusing on whether it is racist / xenophobic and exactly what country it is meant to be set in, and it is easy to see why. Jack Dwyer (Owen Wilson), his wife (Lake Bell) and two daughters are having to relocate to a new country as Dwyer has secured a job there.
In the early scenes as they fly and arrive, they talk weirdly of moving to Asia and a “4th world country” but never specifically name that country, which feels very odd. Most of the locals they encounter are either shifty or bloodthirsty murderers and the few that aren’t are pretty swiftly dispatched before their characters have any time to develop. Before addressing those points, however, a more important question needs to be answered is the film any good? My answer to that is yes, with a few caveats…
Within hours of the family arriving and settling into their hotel room, a violent coup breaks out. With a rabid move killing all foreigners they come across, the family need to find safety. So, we are presented with a series of episodes where the family run, hide, narrowly get away from the pursuers, and then run again! Thanks to urgent but never confusing direction from John Erick Dowdle, and committed performances from the two leads (both of whom are outside of their usual comfort zone) the story never feels repetitive and doesn’t flag at all.
There are plenty of holes in the story, the foreign characters are poorly drawn and the kids are annoying brats, but I found all of those issues easy to overcome thanks to the sheer energy in the story telling. Pierce Brosnan is also great fun as an implausible British secret service agent.
So, is it racist? Possibly a little but not enough to spoil my enjoyment. Where is it set? The obvious early signs are Thailand as Wilson swigs a Singha beer in the hotel bar, and that is where it was filmed. However, the Thai government objected to the depiction of the country, thus the decision was made to make it a non specific Asian country. However, with the rebellious hordes resembling the Khmer Rouge and as the country has a river border with Vietnam is seems to be heavily hinting at it being set in Cambodia. So heavily hinted in fact that the Cambodian government has banned the film!
Rating: 6.5 out of 10