Dead Man Down

Victor (Colin Farrell) is gangster thug working for Alphonse (Terrence Howard). Somebody is trying play with Alphonse's head by sending him cryptic messages. Beatrice (Noomi Rapace) is Victor's neighbor. She has been scarred in the face by a drunk driver. When she filmed him killing somebody, she uses it to blackmail him to kill the man who caused her pain. Only she's not the only one with a secret pain.

The acting power in this film is quite impressive. This is directed by Niels Arden Oplev (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). He certainly has the skills to make a movie. At the start, it looked like just another crime action thriller. Then it added a darker brooding character study. It feels uneven. There are a couple things I find questionable, and the ending feels stuck on from another big action Michael Bay movie. Overall it's still a good effort. If only Niels could stick to one genre or the other, this odd mix would flow more easily.

It is really hard for me to rate this film because it is a mix of great and horrid bits. Colin Farrell's quiet yet intense act is matched by Naomi Rapace's hysterical overacting, the rather complex plot is messed up by cliché scenes and in the end, the moral seems to be that all plans that you care about are a lot easier to accomplish if there are no friends and romantic interests.

The thing with the film is that it has a lot going for it: great cast, good acting most of the time, a compelling story with just the right amount of details to make the plot a lot better than most Hollywood productions. Somewhere along the way it turns sour, the feeling someone gets when expecting to have fun at a party, only to have it all soiled by the significant's other discomfort. In the end the revenge feels failed, the romance doomed, the second chance just that: chance.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Victor (Colin Farrell) is a Hungarian immigrant, who arrived in the US hoping to raise a family and hold down an honest job. But these simple dreams were shattered when crime lord Alphonse (Terrence Howard) and his goons took over the apartment block he was living in, and his family were killed. He has now infiltrated Alphonse's gang, and is systematically annihilating every one of them until he reaches the main man himself. But Victor crosses paths with Beatrice (Noomi Rapace) a beautiful woman whose life has been ruined after she was left with a hideous facial scar by a drunk driver, who tries to blackmail him in to helping her get her own revenge.

It may have reached the stage now where audiences are basically forced in to being a little less demanding and must accept if a plot isn't entirely original or has been done before, as long as it's maybe told in a different sort of way or explored from different angles. Which seems to be the case in hand with this offering from the director of the original The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. As multi-layered as a BLT sandwich, Dead Man Down compounds the action with a cacophony of sub- plots and plot angles that means it never plays out like a traditional revenge thriller, even if the basic plot line is exactly the same.

Shot in a drained background colour, it keeps the feel of a bleak, dreary style that feels like the norm these days. Playing a foreign character whose English isn't so good, Farrell also has to carry the film without much dialogue, but has developed a natural presence by now that gives him enough gravitas to do so. The story and the performances keep you hooked, even if at times they all feel a bit over-whelming and you struggle to take it all in.

While not quite the sum of it's parts that it could have been, Dead Man Down is still a very impressive film, in both a technical and practical sense, that is one of the finer points of Farrell's recent resume. ***

Beautiful photography (amazing background blur, lighting & bokeh) and fantastic production design.

The only things letting down this film are the pace (slow at times), and the lack of character development.

Very good performances from Raapace and Farrell, good chemistry and I thought Raapace was very beautiful as Beatrice. The way the kids treated her was very disturbing and I felt an accurate indictment of modern society and its emphasis on the superficial. The main themes of 'Family' & 'Love' were very well portrayed. Overall I would give this film 7.5/10, a gritty, violent depiction of Urban Decay and the injustice of the supposedly equal legal system.

A criminal makes a major mistake, really major. This movie details the danger inherent in not double-checking your work.

Slow but not bad and culminates in a great action ending that's worth sticking around for and the film does not telegraph the ending. It was nice watching a movie when I haven't figured out the ending.

Performances were good, some almost great. Terence does a great job as the villain. Noomi Rapace is an unknown to me but she is a credible actress. Farrell and Rapace have good on screen chemistry.

All in all a more interesting film than I expected but it's better as a rental than theatrical release.

The title make sense if you stick around for the conclusion.