An average movie

This flick is a typical example of a movie with some good ideas but because of the Hollywood system, it unfortunately never reaches its full potential. I mean, it tries and does a pretty good job to be clever, thoughtful and provoking throughout the whole thing but, eventually, in my opinion, it was still not realistic and dark enough, especially concerning the phony 'happy' ending (Jake Gyllenhaal changes his mind and release the prisoner against his order and the prisoner remains happy ever after... In a good movie, Gyllenhaal would have shit his pants, the prisoner would have been killed while tortured and they wouldn't have been any happy ending at all.) Still, there are many good things about this flick. The plot is timely and gripping and they show you some pretty dark stuff (though nothing really surprising or shocking actually), there is a decent cast (Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep) with, above all, Meryl Streep who was just awesome, playing an evil politician. So, it is and remains an interesting thriller but it remains also a commercial outing so they never really go all the way but it was still an interesting commercial picture and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.


6/10