WHILE SHE WAS OUT: DVD

SYNOPSIS:
Della Myers (Kim Basinger) is an upper-class housewife living in a private condominium in the suburbs with her twin children and her abusive husband Kenneth (Craig Sheffer). On Christmas Eve, she drives to the local shopping mall for wrapping paper. A car park altercation with four punks - Chuckie (Lukas Haas), the Afro-American Huey (Jamie Starr), the Chinese-American Vingh (Leonard Wu) and the Latin Tomás (Luis Chavez) -leads to a terrifying confrontation in a desolate forest, with Della fighting for her life.

Review by Andrew L. Urban:
Kim Basinger does woman in peril better than most, and this quickie is a bullseye in the genre. She, Della, not only has kids but an abusive husband; it's not only Christmas Eve but a dark forest; the punks are not only stupid but mean. Still, she does manage to grab the tool box from the car before fleeing, giving her some choices for weaponry.

Desperation and fear her sole trainers, Della does a Rambo in the night as her pursuers discover the killer instincts of a mother keen to see raise her babies, who are sleeping safely at home with ratfink father Kenneth (Craig Sheffer) a useless hunk of meat.

Lukas Haas, for his part, does great youthful menace, as the punk leader, at first all swagger, then seductive Satan. Lots of edgy night chasing and some tense moments, but the resolution is a tad disappointing, showing up the screenplay's flim flam nature.

Published January 29, 2009