Rushed revolves around Barbara O’Brien (Siobhan Fallon Hogan), a deeply devout Irish Catholic mother whose son Jimmy (Jay Jay Warren) is the victim of a brutal bout of fraternity hazing gone wrong. Determined to make peace with her son’s death, Barbara sets out on a cross-country road trip where she visits multiple mothers who have also lost their sons to similar crimes. She records their testimonies, hoping their grief will help shed light on the dangerous realities of fraternity hazing. When she eventually uncovers the gruesome details of her own son’s final moments, Barbara takes matters into her own hands, committing herself to a vengeful plan.
At its core, the film tries to explore the senseless grief that a mother experiences after losing a child, and it does so through a storyline that at times feels a bit like the Greek-life version of Erin Brockovich, following Barbara as she obsessively researches these fraternity hazing deaths and records heartbreaking personal stories from women across the country. This approach often gives the film a feeling of building towards something monumental, but ultimately falls flat as the film tries to shift gears more than once, leading to too many underdeveloped twists and turns. Only Hogan, who plays Barbara and also wrote the screenplay, delivers a measured and consistent performance throughout with a portrayal that feels a lot like a scrappier Marge Gunderson. Even though she tells her husband that she has “zero skills,” her drive to uncover the truth about her son’s death proves just the opposite. Hogan beautifully captures the resilience of women, and the movie is worth watching just for her performance alone.
Rushed is a fairly fast-paced thriller, but it lacks the ingenuity of pleasurable twists and turns designed to keep the viewer on the edge of their seat. There is no real mystery behind how Jimmy died – we see his death unfold in real time soon after the opening scene – and even when Barbara herself finds out what was done to her son, the scene feels anticlimactic and flat. In the final moments of the film, scenes which veer closest to the horror genre, director Vibeke Muasya doesn’t quite push the boundaries far enough. In her attempts to show just how far a grieving mother will go to avenge her son’s death, the final scenes of the film lack the confidence (and the brutality) needed to pull off the story’s ultimate twist.
While not spectacular, Rushed still manages to throw in a few good thrills, all while shedding light on a very real aspect of fraternity culture. There’s much to appreciate in the film for its measured approach to hot-button issues like Greek life and toxic masculinity, and even though the movie didn’t push itself as far as it could have, it still offers a fair share of chilling moments. When Jimmy’s father (Robert Patrick) tries to ease his wife’s fears about the legitimacy of fraternities, he calms her with a line designed to eloquently capture some of the film’s more political undertones. “Trust me,” he says, “They turn boys into men.”
Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment
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