Review: SURGE Starring Ben Whishaw

This week, the film Surge is hitting theaters. Ben Whishaw stars in the thriller described as a story about a man who goes on a bold and reckless journey of self-liberation. I was expecting a movie in the style of Michael Douglas’ 1993 drama Falling Down, which follows a man who has had it with societal flaws and lashes out to right wrongs. This took a different approach.

While the film was marketed as a man’s liberation from his monotonous life, it was clearly a person struggling with a mental break. What could have played more as a mid-life (or third-life?) crisis, was just a very sad and tense 90 minutes in which this main character made poor and strange decisions that led him to an inevitable undoing.

Whishaw plays the role believably and with the conviction that makes you feel so sad for this person that is free-falling before your eyes. I can appreciate what the film ended up being, but it was very different from what I first assumed.

Surge is the 24-hour journey of a person who finds themselves mentally unwell, without a solid support system to help him process it. If you are down for this type of story, Whishaw does a great job portraying it.

Surge is available in theaters and On Demand this Friday, September 24th.