Right at Your Door [DVD] (2008)

Thought provoking in the current day and age with several "dirty" bombs going off almost simultaneously in Los Angeles. This film deals with the human aspect - the fears and emotions of a husband whose wife had just left for work when the explosions occurred. It was, I must say,filmed almost entirely in the dark during the night after the attack.

It was a most personal insight into the lives of these two people, knowing one of them was going to die. My husband found it difficult to follow, being filmed entirely at night with the dialogue being solely between these two individuals. But, if you watch it in the manner in which it was filmed, it's certainly memorable. Just don't expect big action scenes - it's mostly dialogue. I wouldn't watch it again knowing now how it plays out but it was certainly worth the 96 minutes I sat in awe the first time.

We lived in Florida during the Cuban missle crisis and instead of ducking and covering under our desks we went out in the hallway and huddled against the wall during our nuclear attack drills. When I was growing up it was pretty much taken for granted that one day the Cold War was going to go nuclear. There were movies from "On the Beach" to "Fail-safe" that played out possible scenarios for the end of the world as we knew it, and even "Star Trek" assumed that World War III was going to be a nuclear war. When "The Day After" came out Carl Sagan was on the special edition of "Nightline" that followed saying that a real nuclear winter would be much worse than what we say in that made for television movie. But now we live in a world where a full out nuclear exchange between two super powers seems extremely remote if not impossible and we would like to believe that a terrorist attack involving nuclear weapons is not inevitable. We have seen such a scenario played out with super Agent Jack Bauer on "24," but that never really involves ordinary people. That is not the case with "Right at Your Door," which plays out against our worst fears at a very basic level.

Brad (Rory Cochrane) and Lexi (Mary McCormack) are living together in Los Angeles and on this fateful morning she goes off to work. The next thing Brad nows there are reports on the radio of a series of blasts in the city. It turns out that not only is this a terrorist attack, but that the bombs were dirty bombs that are filling the air with toxic clouds of deadly ash. Of course Brad tries to contact Lexi, but the phone lines are jammed and when he jumps in his car to try and go and find her, his efforts are thwarted by the police. Chances are she is already dead, but Brad simply does not know one way or the other. So he returns home and seals up his doors and windows against the toxic cloud that is coming, and waits for Lexi to call or get back home.

This turns out to be only the grim opening act of first-time writer-director Chris Gorak's film, which was screened at Sundance in 2006 and only grossed $64K when it was released for a few weeks last year. Now that it is out on DVD, word of mouth should help "Right at Your Door" get a much larger audience, because this is an engrossing little film. One aspect of the film's low budget is that instead of television coverage of what is going on, all we and the characters get are radio broadcasts. However, this ends up working in the film's favor as our imagination fills in the grim details, as do the simply sights of black clouds of smoke and the rain of ash particles. More money would not have improved the finished product and most of the story plays out in and around the home that Brad and Lexi share. There is also an echo of 9/11 in how family and friends reach out by cell phone.

The film that "Right at Your Door" reminds me most of in terms of these apocalyptic films ends up being "Testament," the harrowing story of a family trying to survive in the aftermath of a nuclear war far enough away from the destruction, but not far enough away from the fallout. "Testament" has a much longer time-frame than "Right at Your Door," but it shares the same intimate focus. Overall I liked the way things played out in the end (I certainly was not expecting that particular resolution), although the set up for the end game did strike me as a bit strange when it was happening. That was the one bit that immediately struck me as unbelievable that under those circumstances the cell phone (this reference will make sense when you see the film) would be an issue worth pursuing. I was going to round down on the film because of that flaw, but you know me. I think irony is the master trope of the universe and when you surprise me with an ironic twist at the end of the story I end up rounding up.

The DVD extras include the scripts for a pair of alternative endings for the film, and it is heartening to think that at least Gorak did not film either one of them, because I am getting tired of filmmakers getting to the ending of their flms and picking options (just take any of the classic films of your choice, imagine alternative endings, and shudder accordingly). This is an effective little film, and while I would not call it great, it certainly deserves to be seen by more people than have caught it to date. That is why I have talked in general terms about the opening act and left the other two-thirds of the movie for you to discover for yourself.

With so many individuals having settled back in to a pre-9/11 mindset, Right At Your Door is a timely and pretty effective wake-up call, really hitting close to home with the ever-present danger of international terrorism. I have no idea why the working title of this film was once Forearm Shiver, but the final choice of title fits the story perfectly. Brad (Rory Cochrane) and Lexi (Mary McCormack) are sort of a modern-day Everyman and Everywoman (she works while he practices - or not - with his "band") whose normal lives are shattered by a series of explosions across nearby Los Angeles. As if that weren't bad enough, the drama reaches a sustained crescendo at the couple's very door - literally. Plenty of films make you wonder what you might do in a certain character's shoes, but Right at Your Door takes it to an extreme, all but demanding that you take a stand on one of the most difficult of questions.

Brad is performing the most mundane of tasks - brushing his teeth - when the local radio station interrupts the music to announce that multiple bombs have exploded all across Los Angeles. Unable to reach his wife (who works in LA) on the phone, he jumps in the car and heads out into the chaos to find her and bring her home. Turned back by policemen blocking the city off from incoming traffic, he returns home and soon learns that some sort of dirty bombs were used in the attacks. As the deadly ash makes it way toward his location, he holds out as long as possible, hoping his wife will suddenly turn up at the door, before rushing to seal off the house - with the help of a construction worker from next door who has come there seeking refuge - from the deadly fallout. Then, not long thereafter, the miraculous occurs, and his wife is in fact there at the door, still living and breathing and asking - then demanding - that Brad let her in.

What would you do? Would you let your soot-covered, contaminated spouse into your house or would you heed the advice of government leaders and deny her entry, hoping that medical help will arrive in time to save her? Knowing she has been exposed to whatever chemical or biological substance the dirty bombs were packed with, Brad must make an agonizing decision. Since that decision pretty much sets up the final hour of the film, I will not reveal it here in the context of this review - nor will I even offer a hint as to the nature of the ending (except to say that I think it works rather well).

If you're looking for heart-stopping, blockbuster special effects or visceral horror, Right at Your Door is sure to disappoint you on those counts. This is very much a character-driven story. Even if writer/director Chris Gorak had had more than a limited budget to work with, I don't think he would have shot the film any differently, as a bunch of distracting special effects would have interfered with the interpersonal dynamics at the heart of his story. Brad can see smoke from the nearby explosions, but his only real source of information is the radio (he and Lexi just moved into this house and this was the very day that the cable guy was supposed to come out and get their television set up). This only adds to the insular feel of the drama playing out before our eyes. Having said that, though, I do have to admit that the film didn't pull me in as powerfully as I thought it would. While Brad and Lexi obviously love one another, there's seemingly a lack of chemistry in their relationship. I felt as if one of the home's many layers of plastic sheeting and duct tape found its way between me and the characters - just enough to prevent me from truly embracing this couple and their awful plight. Still, Right at Your Door is a memorable and well-made film built around a most fascinating premise - and quite a debut for first-time director Gorak.