P2 (2007) Movie Review

Imagine the terror of being locked in a dark parking garage with only the light of your small cell phone to guide you. No friends. No car. No reception. No way to contact the outside world.

Such a unique scenario is the basis of this Christmas thriller. It is Christmas Eve, and Angela, a workaholic executive, is the last to leave the office… as usual. The last thing she suspects when she clocks out and walks to her car is that she would spend half the night trapped in that garage with a mentally unstable security guard named Thomas.

Angela is a woman of many faults, the most obvious being that she makes work a priority above her family. She focuses on work so much that she deprives herself of a social life or a romantic life. She doesn’t even notice the man to whom she trusts her car everyday… Until it fails to start.

At that moment, Angela embarks on a painful, terrifying journey to see the light of Christmas morning. Thomas handcuffs her, murders in front of her, freezes her with a fire hose, tases her, and malls her with his dog. That is only what she experiences while conscious.

Despite her faults, she proves herself to be extremely intelligent from the beginning of her abduction. She manages to outwit and escape Thomas’ capture, all the while expressing strong affirmation that she would never submit to him.

The reason for her strong resistance is unclear. However, something tells me that work is the furthest thing from her mind as she limps out of that garage. She emerges a different woman with a much higher value on her family, her health, and her time on this earth.