Surrounded (2023)

When a stagecoach is ambushed by a violent gang of outlaws, it is left to the quiet and unassuming war veteran "Mo" (Letitia Wright) to keep an eye on the captured "Tommy" (Jamie Bell) whilst her colleagues go off in search of a bag of loot that their would-be robbers had already stolen. The wily and ruthless "Tommy" tries all sort of tactics to try and get her to trust him - and to untie him from a tree, but she is no shrinking violet and it is only when his own gang turn up and she faces some perilous choices that he ends up at liberty and she finds herself facing the ultimate fight for survival. It's not really a Western, I think, this film - it could easily work the same in an urban environment. It's a more of an attempt at a more sophisticated story that looks at sex and race in what was essentially a white man's rather harsh world, and Wright fulfils the role effectively for the most part. Bell is also a good actor when his temper is allowed to run wild and has a rawness that's usually quite fun to watch too. Add to that duo the rather menacing presence of "Clay" (Michael Kenneth Williams) and we should have been set for a cracking story. Sadly, though - we don't get it. The build up scenes and character establishment tee us up well, but when it comes to the execution of the gist of the story, the thing just falls away and becomes rather procedural and familiar. The photography works well as does Robin Hannibal's score, but the dialogue all-too-quickly becomes rather mono-syllabically banal and the film simply runs out of steam after forty minutes or so. There is something suitably vindicating about the denouement, but by then I'm not sure I really cared that much any more. It's certainly worth a watch but I found it disappointing.