i must say from the outset that i have never been much of a kurt russell fan .
i 've seen some of his films ( silkwood , backdraft , unlawful entry ) and while he gave adequate performances , i have never been impressed with his work .
breakdown , then , is something of a surprise .
russell gives a fine performance , as do most of the cast , one that is not upstaged by the action orchestrated in the second half of the film .
to say that he holds the film together would not be completely true , but he does it no harm .
russell plays jeff , one half of a married couple travelling with his wife amy ( kathleen quinlan ) cross country to san diego to start a new job and a new life .
while journeying through the desert their car breaks down and , left helpless and stranded , jeff waves down a passing truck driver ( j .
t .
walsh ) who offers to take them to a nearby diner to call for a tow truck .
because of a nasty incident earlier with a couple of ruffians , jeff decides to stay with the car while amy gets help .
that , it seems , is the last time jeff ( or anyone else ) sees her .
breakdown has been compared to several movies : george sluizer 's the vanishing ( the original , hopefully , not his appalling hollywood remake ) , steven spielberg 's duel and any number of hitchcock films .
as with these , breakdown does not , for the most part , stray down the conventional path of the american action - thriller .
jeff does not become a gun - toting vigilante on the hunt for his wife , but instead becomes a scared , confused everyman who has no idea what the hell is going on .
when we do find out what has happened to amy , it does come as a slight disappointment , if only because it 's too early in the film ; i for one could have done with an extra twenty minutes or so of mystery and bewilderment , but this affects the film little .
russell , as mentioned earlier , is very good in his role , and kathleen quinlan is nowhere near as annoying as she was in apollo 13 .
j .
t .
walsh , as the possibly evil truck driver , is terrific ; he is one of the best of the fine batch of character actors
hollywood does n't seem to know what to do with , but director jonathan mostow is on the right track here .
the reason
he makes such a great villain is that he actually looks like a real person , one anyone would be able to trust , which makes the plot that much more believable .
breakdown is what hollywood does n't make enough of , a great thriller with believable characters and scenes that do , indeed , have viewers on the edge of their seats .
one of the most genuinely exciting films i 've seen in a long time .
is something of a surprise he makes such a great villain the most genuinely exciting films i 've seen in a long time is very good in his role one of the best of the fine batch of character actors is on the right track here gives a fine performance , as do most of the cast have viewers on the edge of their seats makes the plot that much more believable a great thriller with believable characters terrific