Carriers

Thursday 10th December 2009

Dir. Alex & David Pastor
Rating **

With the H1NI flu pandemic almost behind us, a film about a deadly viral global outbreak destroying humanity is just what the doctor ordered.

With a pandemic virus having infected and killed most of the world’s inhabitants, brothers Brian (Chris Pine) and Danny (Lou Taylor Pucci), along with girlfriends Bobby (Piper Perabo) and Kate (Emily VanCamp), are on the road in search of their childhood vacation spot, Turtle Beach, in the hope of having a safe place to stay to wait for the deadly virus to cease. But on their journey the foursome come across Frank who is in desperate need of fuel to drive his infected daughter to a safety zone. After fleeing the risk of catching the deadly virus from the youngster, the group return to offer a helping hand, but as they journey from town to town with the infected girl in tow, they encounter deadly circumstances that force them to make tough decisions in order to stay alive.

Despite the premise of a deadly virus, this film includes neither zombies nor gory flesh-tearing scenes. Instead, the Pastor brothers focus on how civilization fractures in the midst of fighting for survival, and as the film progresses, the various ways humanity might falter, if it were faced with a pandemic in real life, unwinds – the desertion of family, the betrayal of lovers, illogical and immoral lust – the film even includes two Christians who attempt to abandon the group, before being gunned down for gas.

The concept of the film, albeit a unoriginal one, is rather promising, yet is let down by leading men Pine and Pucci – Pine with his over-dramatised obnoxiousness, and Pucci with his infuriating sissy-boy persona; and with numerous inconsistencies involving the contagiousness of the virus, Carriers offers little more than shallow entertainment.

PUBLISHED IN SCREEN JABBER