ReviewNetflix movie review: Intrusion – Freida Pinto shines in woefully predictable home invasion thriller
- Only taut direction by Adam Salky, and solid performances from Frieda Pinto and Logan Marshall-Green, make this run-of-the-mill thriller watchable
- Numerous flaws in Chris Sparling’s script should not come as a surprise as he penned the preposterous Gerard Butler disaster movie Greenland
2.5/5 stars
A seemingly perfect couple is pushed to breaking point after their dream home is burgled in Intrusion, a woefully predictable thriller made watchable thanks to taut direction by Adam Salky, and solid performances from Frieda Pinto and Logan Marshall-Green.
Escaping the Boston rat race for a quiet small-town life, Meera (Pinto) and Henry (Marshall-Green) move into a palatial new home that the latter, an architect, has built for them. Soon after their arrival, Meera begins to worry that her breast cancer may be returning, and secretly goes for a check-up.
Later, their house is broken into, and she is shocked to learn that Henry owns a gun, which he uses to kill two of the attackers, leaving a third in the ICU. The police reveal that the perpetrators were all related, and are suspects in the disappearance of a teenage girl, also from the same family. But as the investigation unfolds, Meera begins to suspect that Henry is hiding something.
Intrusion is built on a decent enough premise: that a seemingly idyllic marriage is revealed to be built on a compounding mountain of secrets and lies. However, the film never gives itself the breadth to establish any doubt or plausible alternatives as to who might be responsible, and so the inevitable truth is almost immediately obvious from the film’s opening movement.
Along the way, a series of frustrating contrivances, most notably involving a damaged video camera, exist solely to delay the revelation of vital information. Similarly, foreshadowing is so pronounced that even murder weapons employed in the film’s ludicrous climax are obvious as soon as they appear on screen.