Nearly an extended advertisement for Ford’s Mustang, “Getaway” seems like the typical Hollywood car action film, albeit with one difference–the presence of former Disney Channel star Selena Gomez.
Although interest in the movie is spurred by the appearance of Gomez, the role she plays isn’t all that big. The teen sensation, who gained popularity from her role in the TV show “Wizards of Wizardly Place,” plays the kid who owns a custom Ford Shelby GT500, which is subsequently stolen by the main character of the film, Brent Magra (Ethan Hawke). “Getaway” mainly follows the ex-racecar driver Magra on his mission to save his kidnapped wife; Gomez merely portrays the at-first-whiny-then-courageous rich kid who is accidentally roped into the adventure.
Hawke, the main actor of the film, does an admirable job portraying his character; Magra’s reactions in particular scenes are realistic and in-character, but that is basically the most the movie allows for. His scenes primarily consist of nervous breakdowns while attempting to escape the police or intense arguments with the mysterious voice over the car’s built-in Bluetooth. The audience doesn’t see much more of his personality besides that.
Strangely, the film seems to place an extra amount of attention on action scenes relating to the Mustang. The characters don’t develop much and most of the screen time is allotted to shots of cars crashing, steering wheels turning, and a mysterious voice speaking. There also seems to be an excess of scenes concerning the intricacy of operating a manual transmission vehicle. It is almost as if “Getaway” is attempting to bring back a stick-shift hype and linking the image with the Shelby. In fact, there were several scenes in the film that looked like they came straight out of a car commercial.
The plot, on the other hand, can probably only be described with one word–malnourished. Its storyline is a legitimate one, but “Getaway” desperately needs a more realistic cause for the events that happen. To see such a transparent and illogical explanation for the trials that Magra goes through was disappointing.
True, the film did a good job with the intensity of scenes (I often felt my heart pounding several times during the film); but the plot was one thing that completely missed its mark. At the end of the movie, I was left confused, my head throbbing from the attempt to follow the overabundance of rapidly flashing action scenes.