Shattered (2022)

(On Cable TV, September 2022) Note to film producers tempted to add John Malkovich to a film simply to salvage the result: Malkovich remains merely human, and there’s a limit both to the number of films he can be in, and to the amount of work he can do to save an otherwise poor show. Shattered is a case in point, as not even his hammiest work in a disposable role can quite raise the result’s interest. Not only is the film unable to benefit from what could be called adequate production values, it starts with a terrible idea for a script. Yes, indeed, in this era where we’re getting increasingly conscious of the moral worthlessness of the utterly rich class, we are asked to sympathize with a robotic protagonist (Cameron Monaghan, maybe not acting) whose entire characterization is that he’s a multimillionaire. Taken hostage in his own isolated mountain house by a gold-digging woman (Lilly Krug) working with an accomplice (Frank Grillo! Woo!), he doesn’t show any redeeming quality by himself—alas, the film eventually puts both his ex-wife and his daughter in danger, which happens too late for us to care. Shattered isn’t without its exploitation elements—much of the first half-hour languishes over a naked woman and sex scenes, while the ending gets increasingly bloody and gory. But what’s missing is a reason to care: the protagonist (and his ex-wife, to a lesser extent) are ultra-privileged, the villains are out for filthy lucre and the supporting characters are fodder for kills designed to keep impatient audiences satiated until the blood-soaked finale. Malkovich himself plays an eccentric older man who almost comes in to save the day, but shows up 45 minutes before that would have been appropriate. You can guess what happens to would-be saviours who show up too early. The film, already on shaky ground before his exit, becomes even less interesting after. There are good thrillers to build on the gulf between haves and have-nots—but Shattered isn’t it, and it throws away its best asset as an afterthought.