Shadow in the Cloud

Set during the Second World War, Shadow in the Cloud follows Chloë Grace Moretz’s Maude Garrett, a Women’s Auxiliary Air Force officer, as she arrives on board an American heavy bomber armed with a mysterious package – with the narrative detailing the dangerous flight that inevitably ensues. It’s a fairly irresistible setup that’s employed to exceedingly silly yet entirely engrossing effect by Roseanne Liang, as the filmmaker, working from a screenplay written with Max Landis, delivers a briskly-paced thriller that boasts an assortment of entertaining, captivating action sequences – with the tense atmosphere heightened by Moretz’s mostly spellbinding work as the affable (and entirely sympathetic) central character. (There is, for example, a remarkably engrossing stretch detailing Maude’s solo exploits within the ship’s ball turret.) There’s little doubt, as well, that the appropriately brisk running time goes a long way towards cementing Shadow in the Cloud‘s palpable success, while the instantly-iconic climax ensures that the picture ends on as positive a note as one could possibly envision – with the end result a stirring, unabashedly pulpy piece of work that provides Moretz with the meatiest role of her career.

***1/2 out of ****