ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW

In a place that features giant spinning teacups and a six-foot-tall walking mouse, should one really be blamed if they think they’re losing their mind?

Jim White (Roy Abramsohn) and his family are on vacation at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. The morning of the vacation’s final day, Jim wakes up to a phone call from his boss telling him he’s been fired. Rather than share this news with his wife Emily (Elena Schuber), he keeps it hidden to himself and tries to make the best of their final day in The Magic Kingdom. Unfortunately for Jim, things get unglued in a hurry.

It all begins on the monorail trip from the hotel to the park, when two unnamed french girls board the train. They’re certainly beautiful, slightly boisterous, and interact with a youthful exuberance. Take all that and lay it over just being told that he’s been fired, and you get Jim more distracted by the girls than he would normally be. The family arrives at Disney World and at first all seems well. The sun is shining, the crowd is happy, and The White’s two children – Sara and Elliot – are both having a great time.

However, things go from bad to worse for Jim in a hurry. First he begins hallucinating inside the various family-friendly lines, then he gets so distracted by the french girls that he pulls Elliot on to a roller coaster he is nowhere near old enough to ride. When Emily takes Elliot back to the hotel to be cleaned up, Jim’s oddities seem to reach their apex. A curious Other Woman shares a few stories with him while Sara and her own son play…stories pertaining to the secrets hidden in the parts of Disney World we don’t get to see.

Put all this together, and it’s all Jim can do to keep his sanity at The Happiest Place on Earth.

To really judge a film like ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW, the story behind the story must be taken into account.

In this case, the story behind the story is that this film was shot and released without any permission granted from Disney. Footage was shot on location at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, all of it on the sly with consumer cameras so as not to attract the attention of security. Once completed, the film was then premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival – again, without any permission from Disney. At the time, the thinking by those gathered was that they had just been witness to a happening…that there was no way the notoriously tight-fisted Disney Corporation were going to allow this film to see the light of day. Yet, ten months later, here we are, and the film not only survived without lawsuit, but it even managed to get an on-demand and limited theatrical release.

When the back story of a film comes with that sort of huevos, one almost wants to give it a blind pass. One wants to tip their hat to Randy Moore for being able to pull it off, and leave the discussion at that. Unfortunately, we can’t leave the discussion at that, since the movie takes great pains to tell its story – and its story is a messy one.

What ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW understands best is the fact that Walt Disney World seems to defy logic. It’s built in one of the most humid parts of America, costs a pretty penny to visit, is crowded to high heaven, and every attraction requires visitors to endure brutally long lines. Put all of these things together, and one would be forgiven if they thought that Walt Disney World was the Seventh Circle of Hell. However, as we all know, that isn’t the case. It’s a place where children gain some of their most cherished memories, an attraction that is hopping 365 days a year, and an operation that is amazingly good at making every customer believe that anything your heart desires will come to you (pleasedontsueme, pleasedontsueme, pleasedontsueme…). Jim’s break from reality is admittedly harsh, but one has to believe that despite Disney’s best efforts, many grown-ups – and probably a few children – come away from Walt Disney World fighting the feeling of full-on sensory assault.

However, while that might be the case, ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW feels like it does too much too soon. We’re supposed to sympathize with Jim after he loses his job, however, we’re never given any time to get there, nor shown anything that makes us feel for the guy. While it’s certainly possible to utilize this sort of storytelling technique, ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW never builds on it. Instead, it moves straight from there to Jim’s leering lust for the two French girls. The story could certainly gain our sympathy since times are so tough right now that all loss of employment is a palpable pressure point. Unfortunately, Jim doesn’t drown in his sorrows so much as he jumps off the high-dive. What’s more, there’s nothing about Jim’s desire for these girls that is appealing. We cannot relate to a man coveting two girls half his age at a theme park with his wife and small children right next to him. The stresses and hallucinations are understandable (and even they arrive awful quick). The pining is just ugly.

What’s unfortunate about this, and about some of the plot’s most absurd turns in its final act, is that it takes away from one of the film’s best themes. ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW feels like it finds its purpose when The Other Woman talks about the changing nature of people. She touches – quite rightly – on how we spend a good few years as children enjoying getting hugs from perfect strangers, only for it to vanish without a trace as we grow up. She also underlines that a lot of giving, friendly, and talented people are put in place to turn Walt Disney World into the beautiful mirage that it is. Some of them are taken care of for a long time, others not so much. But what are they supposed to do then? What sort of skill set does “Former Cinderella” have to put on her resume?

ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW has some great ideas wrapped around some surprisingly striking visuals. Unfortunately, not only does it waste far too much of our time making us wait in line for rides we don’t want to ride, but it never does anything nearly as daring as what it did to get made in the first place.

Matineescore: ★ ★ out of ★ ★ ★ ★

What did you think? Please leave comments with your thoughts and reactions on ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW.