The Premise
Kevin Macdonald directs Gal Gadot as a London lawyer whose morning goes sideways when a voice on the phone tells her that her kid has been snatched and she has 86 minutes to run a list of errands across the city. Written by Mark Gibson, it's a real-time chase shot on foot, with Damian Lewis as the taunting voice in her ear. Think "Phone Booth" with a pedometer. The first act sets the clock, sets the stakes, and points her toward the Thames. That's the movie.
What It Gets Right
Macdonald knows how to shoot a city in motion. He made "Touching the Void" and "The Last King of Scotland," and there's a documentary-trained eye for London geography here that keeps the map legible even when the plot isn't. Damian Lewis is having a genuinely good time. His voice work is the movie's engine: playful, cruel, condescending in a way that makes you want the next call. The 86-minute real-time gimmick keeps things brisk. It doesn't sag. When Lewis and Gadot are trading barbs and she's actually annoyed at him, the thing crackles for a minute or two at a stretch.
Where It Falls Down
Gadot is still Gadot. The line readings land flat when the script asks her to sell panic, grief, or improvisation, and the script asks constantly. The plot mechanics are silly in the way streaming thrillers are silly now: errands that only make sense because a screenwriter needed the next location, coincidences the movie doesn't have time to earn, a villain whose omniscience scales to whatever the scene requires. Gibson's dialogue outside the phone calls is functional at best. And the camera can only find so many ways to shoot a woman jogging with a phone before you start counting lampposts.
Who'll Love It, Who'll Bail
If you liked "Phone Booth," "Cellular," or "Non-Stop," you already know the deal and you'll be fine. Fans of the hate-watch, people who enjoy yelling at a TV, anyone who wants to fold laundry to a competent chase, in. Anyone expecting the tension of "Uncut Gems" or the character work of a proper Macdonald film will tap out around the second impossible errand. If you need your thrillers to make sense on a second thought, don't start.
The Bottom Line
BACKGROUND TV is the honest ruling. The bones are professional. Macdonald knows what he's doing, Lewis is genuinely fun, the runtime respects your afternoon. But the writing never rises above its gimmick, Gadot can't carry the emotional beats the premise keeps handing her, and the plot logic dissolves the second you look at it. This isn't a movie that fails because it's trying to say something and won't stop saying it. It's a movie that isn't trying to say anything at all, which is fine. It's craft without conviction. Put it on, do the dishes, glance up for the phone calls, don't rewind if you miss a line. You won't have missed one.