P2 (dir. Franck Khalfoun, 2007)
Angela (Rachel Nichols) has a vaguely defined office job at a vaguely defined business in New York City. She’s working late on Christmas Eve, which is always framed as somehow uncommon in movies and not standard for anyone in the retail or service industry. Angela makes her way to the parking garage, but her car will not start. She goes to the building’s security guard Thomas (Wes Bentley) to let her back into the offices so she can phone a taxi. He insists that he has a way to recharge the battery, which doesn’t work. When she finally does get a chance to call for a cab, she discovers that she is locked in the building. At this point, Thomas attacks and drugs her, tying her up in his security station so that they can ‘celebrate’ the holiday together.
P2 succeeds due to the very real fear of the premise and a strong pair of performances from Nichols, who sells her character’s arc, and Bentley, who plays a nice guy lunatic with gleeful abandon. It also, thankfully, is not a hidden screed against women in the workplace. From what I can tell, the reason why she has a high powered job is that the filmmakers needed a plausible reason for her to own a car while working in midtown Manhattan. While no scene or plot element hasn’t appeared in other media, the execution remains decently done.
oliveresque 