When Bad Execution Happens to a Decent Premise

Rating: 5/10 (8 December 2011)

What could have been a nifty, high-concept premise is hampered by poor execution in this supernatural thriller starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt.
The religious angle is pushed a little too hard for my personal taste, but I could even have swallowed that if it hadn't been couched in a lame script that spends half of its time delivering plot exposition straight up to the audience. There are a thousand plot holes throughout the movie that had my wife and I rolling our eyes with exasperation, and most of them are admittedly nicely resolved by the ending. But though I liked the resolution the movie came to -- and the message about the role free will plays in the lives of men -- a good movie doesn't make its audience wait until the very last scene to convince them that it's not just a stupid and badly-written piece of disposable junk.
Emily Blunt is appealing as always, but her character is terribly annoying (I would have slapped her right around the time she dunked my cell phone in a cup of coffee), and Matt Damon is serviceable but unmemorable. John Slattery has fun simply playing a variation on Roger, his character from "Mad Men," and Terence Stamp tries to bring some British dignity to the proceedings, if unsuccessfully.
Grade: C+