If there was ever a film that summed up the early 2000s, and the many young male directors who tried at that time to emulate the works of Quentin Tarantino and Doug Liman, then 11:14 is it. One of only two features directed by Greg Marcks, this is a fantastic ensemble cast in search of much better material.
What you get here are some separate storylines that all converge at the titular time. There's a drunk driver who hits a body on the road. There's a man who finds a body that he then has to dispose of. There are some young men larking around in a van until someone loses a life, and someone else loses an important body part. A couple of people try to fake a robbery to get some much-needed instant cash. And, last but not least, a young woman spends her time conning a couple of different men into believing she is pregnant, and in need of money for an abortion ASAP.
Having also written the screenplay for this, Marcks would have obviously been happy with himself for what he managed to achieve. The non-chronological construction allows everything to come together in a fun and interesting way as things head to the very end, and it's hard to argue against the value of a cast that includes Henry Thomas, Barbara Hershey, Clark Gregg, Hilary Swank, Shawn Hatosy, Colin Hanks, Ben Foster, Jason Segel, Rachael Leigh Cook, and Patrick bloody Swayze. The big shame is that few of them have good enough material to work with, and it feels as if Marcks was worried about taking up too much of their time to allow them to make much of an impact, with the exception of Cook.
Everyone is good, and Swank and Hatosy work particularly well together in a storyline that keeps them intertwined for the majority of it, but nobody comes close to being as good as they can be. In fact, the best thing they do is appear, allowing unsuspecting viewers to be pleasantly surprised whenever another familiar face pops up alongside the rest of the main players.
Aside from the problem of spreading the material a bit too thin, Marcks is also hampered by his unknown status making it hard for him to find better resources, from the people helping him to capture his vision to the uninspired and unenergetic score and soundtrack. The extensive cast list isn't enough to ensure treats elsewhere, and Marcks clearly had all of his focus on just getting his film financed and completed.
I don't think this is one to seek out, not for the content anyway, but if you're a fan of any, or most, of the cast members then you should find some enjoyment throughout the 86 minutes that it takes to watch this unfold. It's not an unforgettable classic, but I don't think it deserves the kind of obscurity it seems to have been handed either.
5/10
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