Contrived sadistic thriller

Rating: 6/10 (8 April 2011)

I can't decide whether I find the premise of this film interesting or merely silly. No doubt if such an idea had occurred in the golden age of Hollywood, the life changing adventure would have been exotic travel, secret agents and romance. This being the modern age, however, the hero must endure a harrowing ordeal for enlightenment. In this sense it anticipates films such as SAW where likewise a dubious piece of cod psychology is used to justify a series of sadistic events, so the audience can safely watch. The idea that undergoing a series of horrific events is life-affirming is as ridiculous as the notion that undergoing gang rape is sexually liberating (we still await this to become a thinly veiled excuse for a plot, but surely it will in the near future).
The audience is swept along by all this as it happens. Indeed, the events are so extreme that it is hard to believe that this is merely a game. The hero (Nicholas, played well by Michael Douglas) is subjected to a potential drowning, buried in a Mexican graveyard and forced to shoot his own brother (Sean Penn) dead. This drives Nicholas to a state of despair so that he hurls himself off the top of building in a suicide bid which emulates the manner in which his father died, at the same age. Surely even someone with a cursory knowledge of human mind will realise that this will not do anyone's long term mental health any good, even with the fig leaf of psychological profiling?
It is only at the denouement that a sense of dissatisfaction and audience manipulation kicks in. The plot is deeply contrived and contains a huge amount of x-factors which no psychological tests could predict. Bullets can easily be faked, but that does not explain how Nicholas could have been guaranteed to overcome the many dangerous situations into which he is placed. The jump into the skip, for instance, could have easily ended in a broken neck. Would a wheelchair bound Nicholas said to his brother "Thank you for your birthday present"? The escape from the sinking car was even more hazardous. Had he died would the company have said "whoops"? This is to say nothing to the death dive at the end. Yet all this is greeted with a "thank you" a piece of glibness which is remarkable.