Get Away If You Can – Film Review

Hopeful that an open-ocean sailing trip might relight the spark of their passion, a troubled married couple hits a breaking point when one’s refusal to explore a foreboding deserted island sends them on a deep internal journey that will soon require drastic decisions in order to survive.

Dominique Braun makes her directorial debut alongside Terrence Martin in the form of Get Away If You Can – a slow-burning drama that essentially takes places primarily on a boat and revolves around a couple who are simply going through the biggest fight of their relationship thus far.

The majority of the film showcases just how dysfunctional this couple is and how they’re definitely not right for each other, but sadly, the script from Braun and Martin doesn’t dive any deeper into things. This is an extremely short film running at a mere hour and eighteen minutes including credits.

There’s even some scenes in the beginning of the film that seemed as if they were added solely to pad out the running time. Perhaps the two directors sat back and watched the film and realized just how short it was and knew they needed to make it even just the smallest bit longer, so they added scenes of people staring off into sunsets and relaxing on boats. It’s a little goofy, to be honest.

Braun and Martin are certainly great directors, though. This film – as messy as it is storywise – is surprisingly competently directed. It’s easy to tell what kind of film these two were attempting to make, and it’s obvious that they have a real passion for the craft, but they definitely needed to go back to the writing room a couple of times to work on new drafts of the script.

There are some genuinely good elements on display though. Certain scenes throughout can be legitimately entertaining and you’ll find yourself getting sucked into the story at times. However, by the time it comes close to ending, you realize just how clearly this film is an example of style over substance.

By the time the credits roll, you’ll find it difficult to really pick apart this movie and analyze it because, to tell you the truth, there isn’t much here to analyze. It’s an insanely simplistic story which, at times, is a good thing, but it’s also a problem because the film constantly lacks any real tension or intrigue.

The performances all across the board are also stellar, namely from Braun and Ed Harris. The technical aspects here are great too, especially the cinematography from Lucio Bonelli, Michael Lockridge, and Guillermo Nieto. It’s a gorgeous looking movie, but is simply too devoid on any real meat on its bones.

Get Away If You Can is an admirable effort from Dominique Braun and Terrence Martin that unfortunately fails due to it being a classic case of style over substance.