The trivia says Nicole signed up for the film without seeing a script. You can tell. My question would be: Is this really the Sean Penn who was in Mystic River and 21 Grams? Is he in some sort of money trouble? This film is POOR. Catherine Keener (so sharp in Death To Smoochy) sleepwalks through a painfully thin part. As for Nicole.. Well, she looks lovely in it. The accent veers between Capetown and Moscow. Check out the continuity with her hair blowing around (or not) in the final scene! The film itself? - Convoluted. I knew exactly how it would end about 5 minutes in, and yet as the credits rolled I still couldn't quite figure out who was working for who (and why) in the first 90 mins. There are so many attempts to keep allegiances and motives secret, it actually gets quite tedious. My eyes rolled as soon as we saw Sean Penn. Who could have guessed that the Hero/Agent in a thriller might be just dealing with personal issues and drinking in a bar!? Or that he'd later reveal his emotional trauma, only when the script needed him to make an emotional connection!? Pshawww. The scene on the bus is well done but hardly original, and the 'amazing access' to the UN building just showed (to me) how boring the UN building is. Could have been a much more exciting set. Quite a lot of the dialogue is laughable (actual conversations sound like individual monologues, and are too-carefully (or pompously) constructed). As for the central theme, can you say MUGABE? Talk about hammering your point home, good lord.
So: a thriller completely by the numbers, overly convoluted plot, set-pieces straight from "The Big Book Of Movie Set Pieces", obvious red-herrings and audience misdirection, trite dialogue, dull sets, and.. it that a tribal choir humming away in the background? That must mean this is AN EMOTIONAL MOMENT. What a waste of an (on paper) good cast, and (on paper) a promising plot. Not to mention my money.
So: a thriller completely by the numbers, overly convoluted plot, set-pieces straight from "The Big Book Of Movie Set Pieces", obvious red-herrings and audience misdirection, trite dialogue, dull sets, and.. it that a tribal choir humming away in the background? That must mean this is AN EMOTIONAL MOMENT. What a waste of an (on paper) good cast, and (on paper) a promising plot. Not to mention my money.