A law student in the midst of a debate on capital punishment, Carley (Brittany Snow) is growing less sure about her future. Her lovestruck classmate is Lena (Christian Serratos), nursing severe depression after a nasty breakup with her cheating mate. Dre (Evan Ross) is a high school senior fighting the indignities of his rough urban upbringing, hoping to escape to college in the fall. Kevin (Jonathan Michael Trautmann) is his dim-witted neighbor, a troubled boy raised on violent video games, aching to impress a local gang with his devotion to crime. Quick to thwart Kevin’s carjacking aspirations, Dre instead finds himself pulled into a felony when the two end up attacking Carely and shooting Lena, kidnapping the two without a plan for escape. On a tense ride across the city, Carely hopes for survival as she watches her friend bleed to death, while Dre frantically runs through his options as Kevin escalates his aggression toward the women.

“96 Minutes” is scripted minimally, using radical shifts in time to accentuate the disorientation distracting the main characters. It’s a series of flash-forwards and flashbacks that take their time establishing the true crisis at the center of the movie, holding the viewer in the dark as Lagos labors to shake up perspective to bring identity to her feature. The editorial jumble doesn’t increase the picture’s alarm, delaying tension to a point where it doesn’t mean anything by the end of the film. “96 Minutes” attempts to shock its audience into submission, ratcheting up the suspense with acts of intimidation and violence that aren’t immediately clear. It’s not hard to keep up with the movie, but the empty intensity wears thin as soon as it becomes clear how evasively Lagos is going to play the entire effort.

Characters are painted in broad strokes: Carley is the disengaged law student arguing about the death penalty, now involved in a crime worthy of extreme justice; Lena is the desperate sad sack struggling to remain alive; Dre is the lost cause fighting to build a future for himself; and Kevin is a slack-jawed teen with a verbally abusive mother, losing himself in first-person shooter video games that support his artificial sense of manliness. Lagos also introduces racist, clueless cops, and Duane (David Oyelowo), an observant restaurateur who fully comprehends the dangers of Dre and Kevin’s neighborhood.

The performances are acceptable, with Ross and Snow contributing tasteful work that utilizes a great deal of internalization, mentally searching for a way out of the volatile situation. It’s Trautmann as Kevin that’s the real concern. It appears Lagos is hoping the audience will sympathize with the aspiring gang member in some manner, with his problematic upbringing heavily underlined to deflect blame and expose vulnerability -- a true product of his toxic environment. Trautmann doesn’t possess the experience to portray such a disturbed mind, relying on cartoonish facial reactions and repetitive swearing to communicate Kevin’s confusion. Instead of grasping the boy’s pain, the shrill performance decimates all interest in the welfare of the character.

“96 Minutes” is more bitter than hopeful, expressing disgust with the world at large, with even the honorable punished for their selfless actions. The display of rage is honest and forward, especially near the end credits, yet that intriguing fury can’t catch a full breath in this unfocused and unhelpful picture.

 

D+