Shattered - Gioco mortale

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.

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.

I'd never heard of this movie until it showed up on DVD sites a couple of weeks ago. Then I read the comments here and thought, "Pass." But there was not much to choose from the other night, and the suspense/mystery/thriller genre is my favotire these days, so ... I picked it up. Glad I did because my wife and I enjoyed the movie. Certainly not a GREAT film, but very good. I liked the story, the film was nice and short, good characters. And we loved the ending and the twists. They were very clever. Overall, a solid suspense drama. Too bad this film didn't get released. Saw 4, on the other hand, goes wide and makes a ton.

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

The producers of BUTTERFLY ON A WHEEL (a/k/a SHATTERED in U.S.), didn't have enough faith in their project to seek widespread theatrical distribution of the finished film--even though it had GERARD BUTLER fresh from his box-office triumph in "300". Instead, they went a more direct route--directly to TV on TNT, which seems more like a last resort. Once again, a Gerard Butler film with limited distribution even though co-starred with PIERCE BROSNAN and MARIA BELLO.

Seeing it on TNT, it's understandable that the film had some problems in connecting with a larger audience. Brosnan's villain is below par for the actor and Butler has done better work elsewhere although he gives all his energy to the role of a distraught husband.

The plot is an elaborate cat-and-mouse game that Brosnan plays with the unlucky couple, Butler and Bello. While it does generate a certain amount of suspense, Brosnan's character remains an enigma for almost the whole story. Never once do we get a hint of why he's going to such extremes to torture the couple by demanding that they perform tasks at his bidding. A grungy looking Brosnan makes the villain a very unappetizing psychotic and we're never quite sure about Butler either, an ad agency man who gradually loses his swaggering overconfident manner.

Without giving away more of the plot (except to say that there is a mildly interesting twist toward the end followed by a double twist), the whole thing plays more like a made-for-TV movie than an actual film because none of the characters are more than one-dimensional despite the good acting. And the final scene between Butler and Bello is totally unbelievable as to motivation.

Summing up: Basically tricky and shallow at the core.