Jericho Ridge
Raising a child isn’t easy even under ideal circumstances, something Deputy Tabby Temple can only dream of, a single mother recently demoted at work and her teenage son running with the wrong crowd, but it is a challenge which she is determined to win, keeping Monty under close supervision as she pulls an extra shift on the despatch desk as her colleagues deal with another wild day in Jericho Ridge.
A small town where everyone knows everyone else’s business, a murder has clues and the usual suspects but not enough to form a case, and now the station has been broken into, the evidence room turned over and the stock of ammunition and some handguns taken, but as the sun sets over the valley and Temple is alone the perpetrators return to the station, heavily armed and determined to locate what they could not find the previous night.
Written and directed by Will Gibney, the setup of Jericho Ridge is standard enough, another day in the life of an exasperated woman trying to juggle the many demands of her life and do it with grace and sanity intact, talking softly on the phone and defusing situations remotely when her colleagues go in guns blazing, but after dark it shifts gear to become a relentless siege thriller of unbalanced odds.
Starring Jupiter Ascending’s Nikki Amuka-Bird as Deputy Tabby Temple, she is dedicated, determined and resourceful, flatly refusing to back down and hoping the unknown assailants outside the door don’t realise how inadequate her situation is, limping on a bad leg and carrying an unloaded gun, trying to defend the station alone against a vastly superior force who hold the advantage.
With her only company Earl Macready (Double Date‘s Michael Socha), unreliable even if he wasn’t already in custody for being drunk and disorderly, and the nearest backup well-intentioned idiot Deputy Walter Judge (The Dead Don’t Hurt‘s Solly McLeod) at least half an hour away, matters are made worse still when she realises Monty (The Fades’ Zack Morris) has information about the recent murder which he hasn’t shared.
The clues to solve the puzzle within the station, the answers won’t help if Temple doesn’t live to share them nor if she incriminates her own son in the process, and while there are some necessarily convenient coincidences and revelations the mounting tension and pressure of Jericho Ridge takes over as the action proceeds in real time in the dark and confined location with no avenue of escape, the only way to survive to make every shot count.
Jericho Ridge will be in UK cinemas from Thursday 25th April and available on digital download from Monday 29th April
