This is a fine little film, little in the sense that it runs for only 80 minutes and that it confines itself to about 30 minutes of real time, confines itself to a small group of characters in a country town.  But, it is worth seeing.

The screenplay is something of a jigsaw.  We see various pieces which, only at the end, make a unified picture.  It begins with a drunken driver flirting on his phone, hitting a deer which turns out to be a dead man.  A passer-by offers to help and call the police.  The police, who have some people in custody in the car, arrive and pursue the driver.  He is confronted by the passer-by who has just heard that her daughter has been run over and assumes that he is the killer.

There are several more characters involved in this hit-run which is not what it looks like: the dead girl and her boyfriend, her father, a store assistant and her friend and a group of drinking yobbos in a van.

The crunch time is 11:14 and we are taken back continually to just before 11.00 pm and what each of the characters is doing and why they should all ultimately be connected.

The screenplay is by first-time director Greg Marcks who weaves an intricate story with some intelligence and astuteness.  And he has a name cast:  Henry Thomas is the driver, Barbara Hershey and Patrick Swayze are the parents of the dead girl, Rachel Leigh Cook.  Hilary Swank is the store assistant and Shawn Hatosey her friend.  Colin Hanks leads the group in the van.

A satisfying brief film that achieves what it set out to do – anticipating the Oscar-winning Crash.

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