Review: Held

Held, the latest from filmmakers Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing, has an intriguing premise and set up.  Emma (Jill Awbrey, who also wrote the screenplay) and Henry (Bart Johnson) are a married couple going through a rough patch. To try and re-connect, they rent an isolated vacation smart-home to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Things quickly go south when the home’s equivalent of Alexa traps them inside and a mysterious voice comes over the speakers commanding them to “obey”, or else.  Cluff and Lofing have stated that Held was inspired by the #MeToo movement, which is a great starting point. Unfortunately, unlike other films inspired by #MeToo (think last year’s brilliant Promising Young Woman), Held is more focused on hitting the audience over the head with its message than it is on being a good film.

Held opens with a young woman drinking in a car with some very sleazy looking men.  In a bit of foreshadowing, they roll up the windows, lock the doors, and tell her she’s not going anywhere. Fast forward to an Emma in the backseat of a ride-share on her way to the vacation home. Based on her discomfort over her male driver’s invasive questions, the audience can infer that Emma was the younger woman in the opening scene. The driver, Joe (Rez Kempton) and the men from the opening serve as reminders of why women often feel on the defense from toxic masculinity.

Emma enters the house and makes note of its hi-tech security system and modern amenities before relaxing with some wine and a swim.  Henry arrives earlier than expected, and the two engage in some chemistry-free conversation before heading to bed after a nightcap.  Emma dreams of a mysterious masked figure in black entering their room, and the next morning the couple awaken to find out they have been trapped inside the house.  Soon a voice comes over the speakers explaining that if Emma and Henry simply “obey”, no harm will come to them.  If they disobey, they are subject to painful electrical shocks.

And what exactly are they ordered to do? Play Ozzy and Harriet.  Henry is made to open doors for Emma, their clothes are replaced with 1950’s-style dresses and slacks, Emma is to cook dinner, Henry is to compliment her cooking.  Whoever is pulling the strings, seems to want to repair Emma and Henry’s marriage by having them play out a Mad-Men era fantasy.

For me, this is when the film started to go downhill.  I did not care enough about these characters to be invested in what happened to them. The film would have benefited from any amount of character development. We are not privy to what brought their marriage to such a breaking point. We are told nothing about their lives or thoughts. The performances are decent but fairly one-note. Emma is perpetually pained/scared. Henry is perpetually simmering/tense.

Also, thrillers like Held are usually dependent on a big plot twist that is critical to the story’s central mystery.  Unfortunately, the “twist” here can be spotted from a mile away. This completely took away any actual tension that the film could have provided.  Held’s strong premise and set-up become frustratingly lost in the plodding story and weak characters.  What are supposed to be the film’s shocking moments needed to be a bit more so.  I cannot help but to wonder what a stronger filmmaking team would have done with this concept.

Held would have benefitted from more attention to crafting a compelling film and less attention on making sure the audience picked up on its social commentary. The film’s messages are relevant (The patriarchy is bad! Convenient tech is sometimes anything but!) but Held is not a strong enough platform to have anything resonate or linger past its 94-minute run time.