A much better movie than I was led to expect

Rating: 9/10 (12 August 2010)

Great show, although grim, and I'll probably see it again.
I mainly went to see how Angelina Jolie handled her first action role post-twins, and promptly forgot I was watching the sexiest woman alive because of her complete immersion in the character, who was very often not sexy. This movie was more complex and psychologically consistent than I was led to expect by trailers and early reviews. The whole plot was NOT, as I had feared, revealed in the trailer.
This is not a film that capitalizes on the actor's undoubted sex appeal; instead it reminds us why this actor won an Oscar. There's one scene in which the whole remaining plot cohesion hangs on the expression changing through her eyes while her face remains perfectly still. And she pulls it off. Although, judging from the number of (mostly male) media reviewers who say the plot doesn't hang together, a lot of people were focusing on the actor's lush lips at that point instead of watching the character respond (or not) to a significant event. Me, I was watching her eyes, and had a pretty good handle on what was going on inside the character during subsequent events.