Solid if unspectacular thriller

bob the moo

Since the loss of his wife to cancer, cop-turned-author Dennis Meechum has been struggling to even get passed a chapter of any new project. So when the shadowy Cleve approaches him with an offer, he at least listens. Cleve suggests that he has been a hit-man for years on behalf of a large corporation and wants to use the book to hit back at his former employers. Dennis is convinced after an attempt on Cleve's life and begins to spend time with Cleve to interview him and get material for the book, however the relationship is never an easy one.

Kudos to the film for trying to have a talky character driven script at its core but sadly it never really works. The central character dynamic is interesting but never really convincing because I didn't feel that the characters had sufficient drawn between them to counter the repulsion (and using Dennis' debts was a lazy device in my opinion). This leaves the following relationship on a level that is never much better than "solid" although as such I did still find it engaging. Not as interesting as I would have liked though, which did somewhat take away from the tension at the end of the film because I didn't get the feeling that there was a head of steam built up. The action sections also undermine it; they are not that well done but nor do they fit into the narrative that well and they just seem to be another force holding the film from being smarter than it was.

The central performances don't really help much either, although they are both good enough to hold the interest. Woods occasionally suggests he will go deeper into his character but mostly he is happy with hit-man cool with a touch of twisted humanity in him. As per normal Dennehy gives a solid rock of a performance but never does anything that remarkable or interesting with it. Small supporting roles for Tennant and Shenar don't really do much and the film is carried in the safe hands of the lead pair.

Overall then a solid enough film that is distracting. Occasionally it seems to have the chance to do more but then it never really does, settling instead just for an average approach that is OK but nothing that memorable.

score /10

bob the moo 15 March 2007

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1618260/