Had no idea what this was about, and went alone....
Had no idea what this was about, and went alone. I had heard that Kevin Spacey got replaced by Christopher Plummer and that's all I knew.
Overall it's a good tense ransom movie but it is very far from great. I don't think Mark Whalberg has the chops for this type of role, but it's not an especially interesting character to play in his defence. Christopher Plummer (who i admire) plays almost the exact same character from Inside Man, so that's annoying.
I mostly just enjoyed the scenes in Italy of the kidnappee with his caretaker (really well played by Romain Duris), which were the most dynamic and authentic exchanges in the film. Then all of a sudden, this scene of hyper-violence comes out of nowhere and I found it very jarring and disturbing. i was really glad I didn't bring my mother to see it with me (I almost did).
So basically "uneven" would be the best descriptive for this. Overall it's fine, but doesn't ascend beyond that.
Heart rating: 4 stars
Brain rating: 3.5 stars
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