Movie Review: ’13 Minutes’

Review by James Lindorf

If you ever wondered what it would look like if Lifetime decided to remake “Twister,” look no further than writer, director, and producer Linsay Gossling’s “13 minutes.” Minninnewah, a small town near the Texas-Oklahoma border where people work the land, religion reigns supreme, and extreme weather is a part of life. When one spring storm produces the largest tornado on record, four families must overcome their differences and find strength in themselves and each other to survive. “13 Minutes” will have a limited theatrical run beginning on October 29th before hitting streaming platforms in early November.
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In the ’70s, disaster films were filled with aging movie stars willing to brave earthquakes, fires, disabled planes, and upside-down cruise ships pursuing box office gold. In the 90’s they became action-filled CGI fests with some significant budgets and major returns. In 1996 “Twister” cost around $90 million and made $495 million. Thirteen years later, “2012” would cost $200 million and bring in nearly $800 at the box office. The success of a disaster film is based on how much it increased your heartbeats per minute and cleverly getting the protagonists out of near-death situations. What disaster films usually are not is topical. They may jump on some new scientific breakthrough and spin it out of control to get your pulse pounding but typically steer clear of social issues.

In terms of stars, the only ones here are in the sky. That doesn’t mean it is a cast of nobodies because nearly everyone is a name or face you will recognize. Trace Adkins and Anne Heche play Rick and Tammy, a staunchly religious couple struggling to keep their family farm in business. Tammy works at the local women’s health clinic as an ultrasound tech to bring in extra money. Part of her duties include persuading young women like Maddy (Sofia Vassilieva) not to get an abortion, regardless of their age and relationship status. Maddy is the only child of Jess (Thora Birch), who works as an auto mechanic. She makes sure everyone gets their repairs on time or the parts they need, like Carlos (Yancey Arias). Carlos works for Rick and Tammy alongside their closeted gay son, Luke (Will Peltz). He is also engaged to hard-working hotel maid Ana (Paz Vega). Ana will be closing on the couple’s first home together on her lunch break if her boss ever lets her leave. Usually, there wouldn’t be time for characters like these, or they would be background elements and not the main focus like they are here.

The rest of the cast is filled out with characters you would expect to see. There is the areas lead emergency manager Kim (Amy Smart), who’s keeping track of the tornado, and her television meteorologist husband, Brad (Peter Facinelli). The couple has a young hearing and language impaired daughter Peyton (Shaylee Mansfield), who is in Maddy’s care while they try and keep as much of the town safe as possible. But when the storm hits, there is nothing anyone can do for those thirteen terrifying minutes but hope the place they took shelter will withstand the devastating storm.

And when it comes to the visualization of that destruction, keep in mind that this is a low-budget affair. Gossling did her best to make the tornado exciting or at least dramatic but failed pretty soundly on both accounts. The visual effects are slightly better than 1996’s “Night of the Twisters” and “Twister,” which came out that same year is laughing at them both in flying cow. The town is destroyed, and it carries almost no emotional weight. Most structures in town are entirely leveled, but they fell in a way that protected the characters we are following. Some of them are severely hurt, but the only deaths are from people we have never seen before. Whether Gossling was too attached or needed the characters to learn a lesson, it was a mistake because it is comically impossible that they all survived.

So the action is nothing to write home about, but if they nailed the drama, this could still be a highly recommendable movie. Unfortunately, the drama lacks depth because of the large ensemble cast. There isn’t enough runtime to explore everything, and some of the solutions are puzzling while others are bad enough that with 10 minutes left, you might consider changing the channel. The most honest outcome is that even in the face of tragedy, many people will cling to their beliefs no matter how biased they are. Even if they did change at that moment, that doesn’t mean they should be forgiven for decades of intolerance. I don’t know if I’m late, but did you know tornados could turn a crotchety old racist into a man willing to risk his life for people he wished didn’t exist 45 minutes ago?

“13 Minutes” is the perfect choice for something to have on in the background while folding laundry, doing the dishes, or writing a paper for school. The performances are good enough, and there are enough interesting moments to pause and watch. Still, the more time you invest, the more likely you are to be disappointed. Gossling has talent or at least a thoughtful approach to creating characters. I would love to see her do a straight drama. Something simple focusing on just two or three characters, because I think she could nail that. “13 Minutes” promises a storm of the century and only delivers a drizzle, 2 out of 5.

Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama, Mystery & Thriller, Action
Director: Lindsay Gossling
Writer: Lindsay Gossling
Cinematographer: Steve Mason
Language: English
Running Time: 108 minutes