Le chantage

A normal married couple's life (Gerard Butler and Maria Bello) is thrown into turmoil when their daughter is kidnapped and the kidnapper (Pierce Brosnan) put's them through a series of brutal challenges and horrible experience, threatening to kill their daughter if they don't pass every challenge.

This is a gripping thrill ride that constantly makes you think what YOU would do in this situation and question why it's happening. There are very few clues throughout the movie as to why they have been specifically targeted by the kidnapper and there are a few roller-coaster twists at the end that are jaw-dropping.

It's a psychological thriller of note, with never-ending suspense. This is the problem. It's a constant torrent of "what are they going to do". It never relents nor gives a moment to breath. Consequently you become frustrated and irritated that the movie doesn't give you any answers. Eventually you're just waiting to find out what happens, rather than holding onto the edge of your seat.

Ultimately it lacks the balance of suspense versus relief of similar kidnap thrillers like Mel Gibson's Ransom. The suspense just turns to irritation However this film is well worth watching if you want a no-nonce thriller that requires little thinking on your part and don't mind that half the movie takes place in a car due to the small budget.

Every now and then: the huge Hollywood-engine creates a small and simple film that turns out to be far superior than any gigantic blockbuster made that year. "Butterfly on a wheel" is such a film. It doesn't feature amazing explosions or overwhelming car chases or anything of that kind. It has marvelous actors playing colorful characters in a gripping storyline. These are only the very basic elements but this film uses them wisely. Unlike most thrillers however, this one doesn't take an awful lot of time to set the mood but moves at a high pace.

The split-second where this movie instantly changes from a soft-drama to a razor-sharp thriller is absolutely gorgeous ... it's a real shocker! And from that moment forth we have ourselves a nail-biting ride which'll keep you firmly on the edge of your seat until the very end. On top of that: this movie's great twist ending beautifully blurs the line between good and evil.

Pierce Brosnan has already proved to be much more than 007 and continues to do so here. Maria Bello became famous as the sexy waitress/dancer in "Coyote ugly" but over the years she became a fine actress. And Gerard Butler has fought side by side with Lara Croft and 300 of the bravest Greeks, but now this Scottish actor takes a break from this senseless violence and plays a more fragile role.

In short: "Butterfly on a wheel" is an intelligent cat-and-mouse-game that steadily becomes a first-rate thriller.

This movie is the equivalent of shattering an already broken mirror. We are introduced to the happy, functioning family: Father's successful and climbing the corporate ladder in the advertising industry, while mom stays at home and takes care of cute-as-a-cupcake daughter. All is well...

(if you are really intent on going through the dissatisfaction of watching this movie and are as thick as brick, you shouldn't read any further)

...But right from the start we see father weaseling his way to the top, egotistically snatching away his colleagues' well deserved moment to shine from under their noses. We see father exchange an all too obvious glance with his secretary. We see mom holding a camera and longingly looking at photos she once took. We can overhear a conversation between mom and dad's secretary that seems casual, but carries the promise of becoming significant later on in the movie all too obviously.

If the writer or director - I'm guessing these are directorial decisions - had done a better job at concealing the cracks in the foundation of the perfect family-life facade in the beginning, maybe the shattered dreams at the end would have packed a slightly bigger punch. But half way into the movie we give up on the chance of this becoming anything remotely worth wile. And we masochistically watch the plot unfolding in more and more implausible ways, as the characters (read: plot-devices) propel it to its breathtakingly uninteresting, and actually insulting ending. Ultimately the only thing this movie shatters, is the audience's hope of seeing an intelligent and entertaining movie.

When their happy lifestyle is suddenly interrupted and turned upside down by the forceful intrusion of a menacing kidnapper (Brosnan), Abby and Neil (Bello and Butler) are left with no choice but to follow the increasingly difficult demands and tests set them by this man. It's edge-of-the-seat stuff most of the way, with plenty of twists and turns and even when you get to that stage where you think you know all the answers, something else catches you off guard. The three leading actors all provide sound performances in this intelligent, edgy little thriller, with Brosnan proving yet again, because a lot of people seem not to have realised it before, that he really can act.

Butterfly on a Wheel (AKA: Shattered) is directed by Mike Barker and written by William Morrissey. It stars Pierce Brosnan, Maria Bello and Gerard Butler. Music is by Robert Duncan and cinematography by Ashley Rowe.

Butler and Bello play a seemingly happily married couple who have an adorable young daughter into the fold. Enter a rather sinister Brosnan who announces he has kidnapped the daughter and requires the couple to do everything he asks. Pressure is on then!?

Basically this is just real solid kidnap thriller film making, the kind that we were well served with back in the 1980s, and with that in mind this comes off like a throw back to that decade. Brosnan (how nice to see him doing a natural Irish brogue) grows ever more spiteful, while of course our handsome couple get more frantic.

But naturally there's a mystery going on here, we are left in no doubt about that there is something lurking beyond the edges of the frames. To which the inevitable twist, on which the whole pic's very being depends upon, will either make or break how you ultimately feel about the piece as a whole.

I liked it. 7/10