Harsh thrills and surprising sentiment

Rating: 6/10 (21 August 2016)

Tony Scott's latest film sees the bombastic director moving further away from the action excesses of earlier in his career to concentrate on this deeply moving, human drama. The success of the whole movie hinges on the wonderful relationship between the young and brilliant Dakota Fanning and Washington, giving definitely his best performance in a film so far. This movie has all the trappings and storyline of a typical revenge thriller, with Washington going around cutting the fingers off crims and exploding them with C4, plus loads of gritty shoot-outs and other associated dramas.
But the film actually works best as a slow-burning suspense flick, about two very human people. There's Fanning's child, wise beyond her years, and Washington, burnt-out yet packed with emotion. The chemistry between these two actors is brilliant and the film is surprisingly sad, having me in tears at some points. The other cast members – Walden, Mitchell, Mickey Rourke, TOTAL RECALL's Rachel Ticotin as a reporter – are there to also give good performances, but they definitely come in at second place compared to the movie's central relationship. A realistic, suspenseful film which offers a glimpse of how things really are.