Sanctuary

Directed by Zachary Wigon, Sanctuary follows two characters, Christopher Abbott’s Hal and Margaret Qualley’s Rebecca, as they meet in a hotel room and engage in a series of increasingly tense conversations over the course of one long day. Filmmaker Wigon delivers a decidedly hit-and-miss drama that’s at its best in its promising first act, as the movie kicks off with a relatively compelling opening stretch that benefits from the novelty of Hal and Rebecca’s dynamic together – with the watchable vibe heightened by Abbott and Qualley’s stirring efforts. (Abbott is quite effective here, while Qualley sporadically seems a little out of her depth.) It does become increasingly clear, however, that the protagonists aren’t really interesting or compelling enough to sustain a full-length feature, and there’s little doubt, as well, that the progressively uninvolving atmosphere is compounded by dialogue that’s not nearly as sharp as one might’ve hoped. (Wigon’s stylish visuals compensate up to a point, ultimately, after which it becomes exceedingly difficult to care about any of this.) The picture builds towards a fairly tedious climactic stretch that’s rife with revelations that just aren’t able to pack the punch Wigon has obviously intended, which does, in the end, cement Sanctuary’s place as a misfire that could only have worked as a short.

** out of ****