Let me get some things out of the way.
* This is a movie adaption of the critically acclaimed 1985 BBC series of the same name, which lasted one year.
* This is meant to be Mel Gibson’s ‘comeback’ movie, after a 7 year hiatus from acting. His last movie he acted in was The Singing Detective.
Gibson plays Thomas Craven, a homicide detective who lives by himself, who cherishes and loves his daughter Emma, played by Aussie star Bojana Novakovic (Tippi from Satisfaction). He picks her up from the airport, reminisce and catch up in the car on the way home on a gloomy rainy night. Everything seems fine but Emma appears to become a little distant on certain topics. As they arrive home, Emma becomes violently ill. As Thomas prepares her to take her to the hospital, Emma is about to confess something terribly important when a masked gunman confronts them at the door and kills Emma with a sawn off shotgun. Dying in his arms, Emma breathes her final breath, and with very little clues, Thomas vowels to seek revenge and find her killer, while trying to discover what Emma was about to secretly reveal.
As Thomas tries to deal with Emma’s death, he has dreams and illusions where Emma can only be heard by voice, or has flashbacks of her when she was a child. With these images, it makes Thomas feel stronger and pushes him to surge on and fight back.
Throw in Ray Winstone, playing a CIA Agent to cover up the operation, Winstone’s character has the hallmarks similar to his “double Agent” theme in Indiana Jones 4, which does get confusing. Danny Huston plays one of the bad guys, who runs and operates Northmoor – a company that specialises in ‘nuclear weaponry’, in which Emma was an employee of. This company is all part of her secret.
With a few twists, turns, and bibs & bobs, Gibson could’ve picked a more energetic and more action packed movie for a comeback. However, the action sequences show that he’s human and doesn’t have extra powers. Plus you end up knowing someone is about to get killed or injured when they utter the phrase “I have to tell you something…” This is more of a drama than an action film, but it will keep you in suspense in some areas.
See it if you have nothing better to do. It’s not good, but it’s not bad either. Your mum will still think that Gibson is a bit of a hunk though.
[xrr rating=3/5]
