Starring Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy. Rating unavailable.

Behind every successful man is a woman beating the snot out of the bad guys. Carl Ellsworth knows this. He wrote TV scripts for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Xena: Warrior Princess. Now, wisely, he's launched his film debut on the strength of another dame's fight-or-flight response with Lisa: Ticking Time Bomb, er, Red-Eye.

Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams) is a sweet, diligent hotel reservationist and daddy's girl. Deserved good karma notwithstanding, while on an overnight flight she is blackmailed by her seatmate (Batman Begins' Cillian Murphy) into helping him commit a murder. If she doesn't, her father (Brian Cox) gets his brains blown out. Great. As if bouncing through electrical storms while infants mewl, "fasten seatbelt" commands ping, and flight attendants scowl isn't sufficiently horrific. But this is Wes Craven's colicky baby. Thus, realistic airplane claustrophobia contributes to Lisa's discomfiture every bit as much as Murphy's unblinking, Hannibal Lecter-like peepers. Indeed, Red-Eye's first 60 minutes are a riveting cinematic lesson in how to boil suspense. So unfairly do Ellsworth and Craven stack the cards against their likable protagonist that the audience, themselves tormented, may silently yowl for their own mental release.

To the film's detriment, we're never in doubt as to the ultimate triumph of a character who's bully-savvy, thanks to her field-hockey experience and former crime-victim status. And when Lisa drops the Miss Manners shtick, the action movie stowed away inside Red-Eye makes a break for it.

Is it both far-fetched and predictable? You bet. Too, the murderer's motives remain as mysterious as McAdams's reasons for signing onto this little fright flick. Still, Red-Eye is worth it. The acting is first-class, and merely witnessing Lisa's response to her tormenter and his "male-driven, fact-based logic" emboldens all inner warrior princesses. Hey, good girls don't always finish last.