Nerve

Nerve is the name of a phone app.  When you sign in, you are given the choice of either being a "Watcher" or a "Player".  Watchers pay a subscription fee to watch the Players participate in a series of dares that are chosen by random Watchers.  If the Player succeeds in a dare, he or she is paid a certain amount of cash.  The crazier or more dangerous the dare, the more money there is at stake.  The Players are ranked on a leadership board by the number of Watchers they have following them.  If a Player does not succeed at their given stunt or task, or bails out before it is finished, they are eliminated from the game and cannot continue with further tasks.  The final two Players with the highest amount of Watchers get to compete against each other in a final dare.

This is the set up for a movie that starts out intriguing, quickly turns ludicrous, and ends up going off the deep end in its final 20 minutes.  However, it does have a lot of energy behind it and is never boring.  Even if the movie is ultimately more silly than thrilling, it kind of works.  The best moments in the film belong to the first half, when we are introduced to Vee (Emma Roberts), a timid Staten Island high school student still reeling from the death of her brother a couple years ago.  She wants to go off to college and pursue her dreams, but is afraid of hurting her mother (Juliette Lewis) and leaving her alone.  It is Vee's outgoing best friend, Sydney (Emily Meade), who introduces her to Nerve.  Sydney is already playing the game, and when Vee is egged on to participate, she signs on to the game as a Player herself.

Vee's first dare is to walk into a restaurant and kiss a random guy.  The guy she picks happens to be another Player named Ian (Dave Franco), who quickly takes a liking to her, and the two decide to become a team.  They head into Manhattan to perform a series of dares together, which range from getting a tattoo, to riding a motorcycle down the streets of New York blindfolded until they hit 60 mph.  Most of the dares, however, are simply fun, and Vee and Ian find themselves getting closer together as they spend the night playing.  At this point, the movie almost resembles a romantic comedy of sorts, as Vee starts to come out of her shell and live for the first time.  But then, the shadier aspects of the game itself start to show, and Vee's life is put into danger.  Not only that, we begin to question if Ian is really who he says he is when it seems like he may have been planted to meet up with her, and that he may have some kind of history with the game.

Nerve gets a lot of mileage out of its likable cast, especially Roberts and Franco, who show instant chemistry here.  It also has been energetically directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, who never fail to keep things moving and fast-paced.  They use just about every camera trick in the book to grab our attention, from quick cuts to graphical maps of the city that show the status of different Players, and it's all highly effective and well done.  Sure, all of this is probably so we don't think too much about the plot.  If the movie had given us time to think, we'd be shaking our heads.  Not that I wasn't.  As the movie gradually changes gears from a fun lark to a serious-minded techno thriller, the movie became harder to swallow.  Oh, it was still mostly effective and well made.  It just starts to get a bit preachy when it starts hitting on themes of people on social media being detached from reality or even their own emotions.

Maybe I wouldn't have minded the commentary so much if the movie were more grounded in reality, but as the plot plays out, Nerve starts to resemble pure fantasy.  It becomes more silly and over the top as it goes along, and by the time the climax comes, it's amazing that the movie is still standing with how loopy its plot has become.  And yet, I am recommending the film, because I would be lying if I didn't say the silliness entertained me.  This is effective light late summer entertainment, as long as you don't put too much thought toward it.  In fact, people who like to point out technical errors should probably avoid this movie all together, as they won't be able to keep up with all the craziness that will be thrown at them.  As out there as the movie ultimately gets, Vee remains a heroine that we can like and attach ourselves to, and that's a big part of its success.  She keeps the movie grounded as much as possible when it flies off the rails.

I'm actually surprised that I liked the movie as much as I did, given how it kind of just showed up on the release schedule without much warning or hype - never a good sign for a summer release.  I'm not saying this is art or even a great movie, but it's a lot of fun if you're in the mood for a thriller that's more style than brains, but still knows how to hold your interest.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

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