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After
his wife and daughter are killed, Victor (Colin Farrell) infiltrates
the
criminal underworld in search for his vengeance. While his focus is on
the one
responsible for his personal tragedy, Alphonse Hoyt (Terrence Howard),
someone
else has sights on him. Watching from her apartment in secret, Victor's
neighbor Beatrice (Noomi Rapace) witnesses his brutal intensions one
night.
Deciding to manipulate his darkness for her own personal vengeance, she
bribes
Victor to kill the drunk driver responsible for her psychological and
physical
scarring.
Dead Man
Down is the
first
picture from director Niels Arden Oplev since directing the worldwide
hit The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009).
Importantly,
it is also his American film debut. Unfortunately though, Dead
Man Down will not have the same success as his previous film.
While the script has some great noir qualities in its ideas, they don’t
surpass
the often bland an uneventful layout of the film's events. The scenes
between
Farrell and Rapace are where the film works best, despite Farrell’s
usual cardboard
acting. Their characters interactions are the counterweight to the
turbulent
and violent world around them. Victor is a man caught between two
worlds of
unrelenting sadness and bitter hatred. Farrell is not an actor known
for his depth,
despite early possibilities of growth in his craft (Tigerland,
2000). The Irishman has never been completely engaging
or brave in his roles and it’s clear why: he doesn’t have the emotional
range
to do so. This weighs down the viewer interest in the central character
and the
film in total. Rapace on the other hand, brings frailty and layered
aggression
to her performance. Beatrice’s actions seem a little on the extreme
side, but
the actress keeps it grounded and quite believable in delivery. Other
actors
who do a good job of their small roles include Isabelle Huppert and
Dominic
Cooper.
Thrillers
are supposed to be thrilling. This is not a secret but it is a fact
that seems
to be eluding many modern day directors. Suspense, scares and intensity
are the
key ingredients to a successful thriller. Dead
Man Down has moments of these, but not enough to satisfy. The early
scripted promise of a tense emotional and violent engagement boils down
to a
typical, bullet-riddled shootout. It is a disappointing directorial
follow-up
from Oplev, unfortunately fitting in with the standard of foreign
directors being
watered down by the continually bland American
market.
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