Thank Goodness for Rene Russo

Rating: 6/10 (1 November 2014)

This is a very bleak film. Why the Director chooses a comic book-esque overlay beats me.
Louis is an unemployed thief. We learn early on he also has the capacity to lie convincingly as well as possessing a capability for violence if pushed. There's really nothing else to him than that. When he chances upon the ideal profession for him, hawking video footage of accidents and crime to local news shows, his only path is to become ever more successful and duplicitous.
When he stoops to increasingly greater lows it really comes as no surprise, given that Gyllenhal decided to play him as a general weirdo from the beginning, all starey eyes and toneless voice. He doesn't go on any journey, he doesn't change. As he's not remotely likable, and there's no indecision on his part, there's no real thriller element, either. Finally, he finishes as he started and we are where we started: square one. Imagine a Silence of the Lambs but where Lecter is the protagonist, not the antagonist, but with deliberately no charisma.
Rene Russo, however, is fantastic as the News Director, Louis's main client, with whom he embarks on an abusive relationship, though you always feel she could eat him for breakfast. Russo's acting is a masterclass in nuance and sheer presence and you can see why Louis falls for her, despite the big age gap.
One last major problem I'll mention is the plot holes - for example, Louis's story to the police at the end is indeed implausible and it would have been easy to come up with a better one. He could have said that the perps saw his car, tracked him down and threatened him not to go to the cops, he made his escape, circled back and saw them at the restaurant. Not "I forgot I did see them after all". The detective is rightly dismissive of this, but he nevertheless gets away with it.
With a bit more work on the story and much more work on the characters this could have lived up to the promise of the trailer. It's a great premise, it is enjoyable in places, but it is not essential viewing.