Penthouse North

Penthouse North

Spanish Theatrical poster
Directed by Joseph Ruben
Produced by Joseph Ruben
David Loughery
Michael Baker
Robert Menzies
Jeff Sackman
Written by David Loughery
Starring Michael Keaton
Michelle Monaghan
Barry Sloane
Music by Mark Mancina
Cinematography Chris Seager
Production
company
Demarest Films
Lionsgate Productions
Distributed by Dimension Films
Release dates
  • January 4, 2014
Running time
 86 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Penthouse North (also known as Atrapada en la oscuridad and Blindsided) is a 2014 thriller film directed by Joseph Ruben and starring Michael Keaton and Michelle Monaghan.[1][2]

Plot

A female photojournalist (Michelle Monaghan), blinded by a bomb during the war in Afghanistan, lives quietly in her New York penthouse. However, an insidious criminal (Michael Keaton) enters her life, seeking something hidden.

Sara (Michelle Monaghan) is a photojournalist stationed in Iraq. When all hell breaks loose she is sent by her CO into a building, in which she espies a woman crying for help. She raises her camera to take a photo of the woman before realizing that the baby the woman is carrying is actually a doll, and a bomb. The bomb explodes, leaving Sara blind.

After the credits roll we are shown that Sara is definitely blind. Her boyfriend, Ryan (Andrew W. Walker) is smitten with Sara and is desperate to marry her. Sara is hosting a party with her sister so pops out to buy some Champagne. She gets knocked over by a cyclist but she is okay. When she gets home she calls for Ryan but he does not respond - he has been murdered but Sara, obviously, cannot know this. She decides to take a shower and Ryan's killer is revealed to still be in the house, using his blade to push a towel in Sara's direction when she cannot find one.

Sara discovers Ryan's body when she slips on an ever-expanding pool of blood emerging from under his body. The killer makes himself known and ties Sara to her bed, asking for "the diamond" which Ryan supposedly stole from him. Sara is shocked by the revelation that Ryan is not the man he made himself out to be. She offers the killer, now known as Chad (Barry Sloane), the diamond if he lets her go. he does so and she knocks him out before escaping the apartment. She hides in her building's basement when her friend Antonio (Phillip Jarrett) hears her calls for help. He tries to save her but Chad slits his throat. Sara escapes to the street when she falls into the arms of Hollander (Michael Keaton) who promises to keep her safe.

They retreat to her building and it is revealed that Chad knows Hollander and they are both in cahoots to find the diamonds. Forcing Sara back to her flat they search it, finding a stash of hundreds of thousands of dollars behind a canvassed photo that Sara took before she was blinded. Understanding that Ryan was indeed a crook, Hollander and Chad renew their efforts, certain that the diamonds are hidden somewhere in the penthouse. Hollander throws Sara's cat over the balcony in a fit of spite before locking Sara up again. She tries to reason with Chad, who has come with a drink of water for her, before turning her attentions to Hollander, desperate to end the torment.

Blake (Kaniehtiio Horn) comes over with her husband for the party Sara was preparing for earlier. Sara somehow manages to get them to leave with a story that she and Ryan are fighting, plus the lucky fact that Blake, who is heavily pregnant, starts having contractions. Panic over, Hollander sends Chad through to the kitchen to fix him a drink while he takes Sara out to the terrace of the house. Chad discovers the diamonds hidden within some ice cubes and hides them away before offering Hollander his drink. Chad plans to stab Hollander and escape with the diamonds and cash himself but is shot by Hollander. With Hollander's attention on Chad, Sara stabs Hollander in the back with a garden shear. She tries to escape the flat but Hollander tackles her. As he grapples with Sara Chad steams in and tries to stab Hollander. Hollander holds him off and steals Chad's blade before stabbing him to death. Hollander searches for Sara, who has found Hollander's gun. She tries shooting him using her sense of sound, but New Year's Eve fireworks dull her senses, giving her a flashback to the moment she lost her sight back in Iraq.

Sara manages to shoot Hollander in the arm. With the gun pointed directly at him she starts throwing the diamonds over her balcony. Threatening to throw all of them away she shoots Hollander in the chest who's then thrown by Sarah over the terrace and plummets to his death, managing to keep the diamonds in her hand. As fireworks blaze in the background Sara cries.

Sara re-freezes the diamonds in ice cubes, while her cat walks over Hollander's carcass.

Cast

References

  1. ↑ "Penthouse North". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2013-10-01.
  2. ↑ "Penthouse North Summary, Cast and Crew". Starpulse.com. Retrieved 2013-10-01.

External links