Alone is an American film, shot in rural Oregon, which is apparently a remake of an earlier Swedish film called Gone; both movies are scripted by Mattias Olsson, but certainly Alone is minimalist in its approach to dialogue and is very heavily dependent on the two lead actors. Fortunately, Jules Willcox is outstanding in the role of Jessica, a troubled woman menaced by a psychopath played by Marc Menchaca, and her performance elevates this movie from the routine same-old, same-old into something rather more compelling.
At the start of the film, Jessica is relocating from her home in Portland. She is in touch with her parents but has a difficult relationship with her mother and it's not clear what is going on or what her plans are. She has loaded her possessions into a trailer which she drives along the endless quiet roads - until a driver of a black jeep starts to behave disturbingly.
She has more than one encounter with the driver (Menchaca) and it's clear that there's something creepy about him, even though he purports to be friendly. The tension builds as Jessica resists his initial attempts to establish some kind of connection with her. But he refuses to let go...
I won't say much more about the plot, even though its development is not exactly unexpected. Films about psychos do tend to have a certain familiarity. But graphic violence is avoided for most of the film; the suspense develops as much by implication and suggestion, and Jules Willcox's acting enables her to convey a formidable range of emotions even when she doesn't say a word. Alone is worth watching for her acting...alone.
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