Smell the Movies
Smell the TV
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
| Year: | 2013 | |
| Country of origin: | USA | |
| Director: | Denis Villeneuve | |
| Genre: | Bleak thriller | |
| Starring: | Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Maria Bello, Paul Dano, David Dastmalchian | |
| Rating: | 4/5 | |
| IMDB link: | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392214/ | |
| Tagline: |
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| Favourite line: | "Day fucking six!" | |
Just how far is too far when a child's life is at stake?
It's America.
It's Thanksgiving.
Two families, the Dover's and the Birch's, are enjoying their time together. During a stroll with their older brother and sister, the two youngest girls are drawn to a camper van parked incongruously. Returning home, the elder youths think nothing more about it, until the two girls vanish.
Now, beset by grief, the father of one of the girls, Keller Dover (Jugh Hackman), implores the police detective assigned to the case, Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal), to work harder to catch their abductors and, when he feels that enough is not being done, decides to take matters into his own hands.
An abandoned family home is selected as the setting for a gruelling interrogation of the chief suspect, though here no laws apply, no phone calls are permitted, and no records are kept.
Here, one man is the law and, in trying to prevent an atrocity, his actions may prove to be the most atrocious of them all.
Two thirds of a fabulous movie, this.
Starting with warm, familial getting to know you scene setting, you feel as if you are on well-trodden ground and, indeed you are, right until the unexpected introduction of an element unusual in this sort of film: a twist you didn't truly see coming. Then the darkness kicks in, and the film, already rendered bleak and foreboding by some sumptuous cinematography from the legendary Roger Deakins, ventures into territory atypical of a piece with such a 'mainstream' lead. Sure, Gyllenhaal has indie sensibilities, but Hackman? Really? Usually not, but here he proves he can get his not inconsiderable choppers into something more weighty than superheroes and boxing robots.
A long film, this delivers for the first hour and a half, then we hit a transitional MacGuffin so silly, it effectively derails the final act, which is a shame as, when a movie clocks in with a hefty runtime, it's the end sequences that really need to pack a punch in order to see the weary viewer through to the end.
Still, a solid effort, with enough misery and malcontent to keep all but the blackest of hearts satisfied, and a very good ensemble cast with no clear weaker link, this is certainly recommended.
Just disappointing as, for a while there, it was damned near flawless.
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