In Europe, this movie goes by the title Desperate Hours and as Shattered in US. It is made in reference to a line in Alexander Pope’s poem Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot. The sentence in the poem reads “…who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel…”. It questions why someone would go through too much trouble to prove a small point.
But it is the effort that Ryan (Pierce Brosnan) puts into kidnaping and mistreating Neil Randall (Gerard Butler) and his wife, Abby Randall (Maria Bello) that makes the movie worthwhile. What will surely keep you watching is so you find out why Ryan also kidnaps their child and tasks them with ridiculous tests to see how far they are willing to go to save their child.
In Uganda speak, Butterfly on a Wheel is a movie and half. It borrows the anecdote style and has a movie within a movie. So there is a twist and then double twists. It is intriguing. It’s amazing what the cat and mouse chase turns out to be all about. If you are in the habit of cheating on partners, this movie will make you think about it.
It also makes it clear that you should never underestimate women especially a housewife.
