Dead Man Down

We have seen films about gangland mobsters and their enemies which is usually the same bad guys that end up double-crossing the other. Sound familiar? I could give you a list longer than my arm, but what's the point of that? Instead, we have infiltration amongst the ranks along with another character with her own interests involved all wrapped up in "Dead Man Down".

Victor (Colin Farrell), a rising gangland player has infiltrated the crime empire run by ruthless kingpin Alphonse (Terrence Howard), with the single purpose of making Alphonse pay for destroying his once happy life. As he meticulously orchestrates his vengeance from his high-rise apartment, Victor watches and is watched by Beatrice (Noomi Rapace), a mysterious young woman who lives in the apartment across from his. On the surface a fragile, seemingly innocent woman, Beatrice has pent up rage of her own. When she uncovers Victor's dark secrets, she threatens to expose him unless he helps carry out her own campaign of retribution. Each fixated on avenging the past, they devise a violent and cathartic plan that could change their worlds forever. They, at first, accuse each other of their 'plots' not realizing until later that they aren't that much different from each other after all.

Others to round out the cast are Dominic Cooper as Darcy, good friend of Victor's, Isabelle Huppert as Valentine Louzon, Beatrice's mother, F. Murray Abraham as Gregor, Armand Assante as Lon Gordon, Beata Dalton as Anka, Luis Da Silva Jr. as Terry, Franky G as Luco, Declan Mulvey as Goff, Roy James Wilson Jr. as Blotto, John Cenatiempo as Charles, Andrew Stewart-Jones as Harry, and Robert Vataj as Albanian Hostage.

This was directed with such intensity, that you'd swear these characters were going to break on screen. The director, Niels Arden Oplev ("Portland" '96, "Fukssvansen" '01, "We Shall Overcome" '06, "Worlds Apart" '08, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" '09) by his very resume, knows how to capture his actors in the most compromising, intense situations with such expertise. It was written by J.H.Wyman ("Pale Saints" '97, "Exhuming Mr.Rice" 2000, "The Mexican" '01, "Repo Cohen" (TV movie) '04, "13 Graves" (TV movie) '06). This is where it gets a little dicey. First of all, this was a little long-in-the-tooth, and secondly, it was a bit choppy in places. It had a great premise, certainly a different twist on otherwise overdone material, but there was too much character development, so the actual plot was jeopardized.

Don't get me wrong. this is not a bad film, just not a great one. Farrell, Rapace and Cooper definitely gave interesting strong performances, but they, themselves couldn't save the script in this one.

Out of 4 Stars: 2.5                        Rated: R                           118mins.