A Law & Order Plot With Interesting Ideas

Rating: 6/10 (16 November 2013)

I really wanted to love this movie. I was a huge fan of the director's previous film Incendies, but this one is just a B grade thriller that is elevated by masterful cinematography, excellent direction, and some truly great acting by the entire cast. This movies is filled with interesting ideas that have to brushed aside in service of a plot which would not be out of place in your average Law & Order episode. The film has a strange religious subtext that is both underdeveloped and overwrought. I could see half of the plot twists coming and in the third act the film basically became a Law & Order episode with an overly simple resolution and "ambiguous" ending. The real problem here is the script. It does have some interesting ideas like the quirks of Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal's characters, but these and others have almost no development beyond the one or two scenes that feature them. If the director had been allowed to rewrite the script the film would have been a lot better and likely have the same impact as the director's previous film. That being said the film is still a well-acted, well- filmed, and intermittently well-written thriller that is extremely emotionally effective and occasionally disturbing.