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Director:
Mikael Håfstrom
Cast:
Clive Owen, Jennifer Aniston, Melissa George, Vincent Cassel,
Robert 'The RZA' Diggs |
Rating: (1 to 5
stars)
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MPAA Rating:
R for strong disturbing violence, language and some sexuality. |
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Review:
 As
W. C. Fields famously said: “You can't cheat an honest man.” In
general victims of blackmail are undoubtedly guilty of SOMETHING.
That's the inciting incident here.
The films with a memoir being written by someone in jail for a
very long time, and we think it's one Charles Schine(Clive Owen),
who has no cash and gets on the train without a ticket, is rescued
by Lucinda Harris(Jennifer Aniston), who does it out of the
goodness of her heart. This starts a relationship that leads to
Charles initiating an adulterous one-night stand, betraying his
wife Deanna (Melissa George) and very sick daughter Amy(Addison
Timlin).
Now, Lucy gives Charles plenty of opportunity to get out of the
affair, but they wind up in bed in a seedy hotel, and it is here
that the villain LaRoche(Vincent Cassel) shows up to rob them and
rape her. Then the fun really starts.
LaRoche then begins his regimen of blackmailing our hero. Charles
is offered financial help from Lucinda, but he's too much of a
gentleman to accept it. He pays even though he can't afford it.
Then things get worse, and when the demands get to be too much, he
takes comic relief mail guy Dexter's(Alvin “Xzibit “Joiner) up on
his offer to scare LaRoche away. This is only about an hour into
the picture and thus we've got a long way to go….and lots of
guilt, too, what with Dexter's pal Detective Church(Giancarlo
Esposito) on the case, and LaRoche demanding a hundred grand….
Then we have the inevitable plot twist which makes the final
revenge plot possible. It's not exactly expected, but when it
comes, it's not all that much of a shock either. In fact, there's
not much in this film that isn't expected. This is mostly a
mediocre thriller, workmanlike, with good acting, but a
paint-by-numbers kind of thing. In other words, it's watchable,
but isn't worth the price of anything more than a bargain matinee.
Better to wait until it comes onto cable and there's really
nothing better to do.
Eric Lurio
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