An average movie

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Gemma Arterton, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I had never heard of Robert Freegard before and it turned out to be quite an incredible story. Indeed, I usually have a weak spot for con artists but, in his case, it went so much further than that as he manipulated his victims sometimes for years. I think this story hit me even harder because I was stuck in a really manipulative relationship for 20 years (in fact, after 8 months, my divorce is still not finalised...). Anyway, the material was quite strong but I'm not sure if they took the right approach though. Indeed, for some reason, instead of focusing on Freegard himself, they decided to focus on one of his victims which wasn't necessarily a bad idea. However, it was a mistake to make her so instrumental in his capture. Seriously, there is no way that she would have helped the police like this and tag along with them to arrest him. Furthermore, I wish they better explained how a seemingly bright woman like her could fall for his schemes. I mean, I noticed that some people were amazed that he could fool so many people with his ridiculous stories but that was the whole point. Indeed, the guy always targeted people, usually women, who were psychologically maybe slightly weaker or at least more likely to be easily manipulated. At the end of the day, some people really want to believe that they can get involved in some adventurous spy world, even if it is actually seriously unlikely. There is also the fact that, when you are deeply in love, you usually trust your partner and believe or want to believe anything they tell you. Unfortunately, in this case, the red flags were so huge and the timeline was not really clear (were they together for a few months or already for a few years when she found out that his identity was fake?) so it didn't add up that she wouldn't drop on him on the spot. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn't completely work, it was still a really strong story and it is definitely worth a look though, especially if you like the genre. 

6/10