When a couple on holiday trying to save their relationship end up involved in the Russian Mafia. A man named Dima is trying to save his family from certain death and gets Perry to take information to the British Secret Service.
Perry thinks that taking a memory stick with information will be his last involvement in it all but that is far from the truth. He is in a lot deeper than he could ever imagine. Especially when Agent Hector has his own motives and vendetta to want to bring down the Russian mafia when a former colleague is highly involved in it all.
Plenty of people all involved for their own benefit was always going to get very messy. That is also a downside to the film it is pretty messy and at times you aren’t really sure why it decided to take that turn. You are unsure whether to root for anyone and if they are who they say they are. In a film like this it makes it difficult to fully enjoy what is happening.
Gail has to come across as the most likeable character as she ends up involved due Perry going to a party with Dima after she leaves him in a restaurant. A very crazy Russian party I must add and so many things are not what we want to see at all. It certainly does not paint a very nice picture of Russian people and the way the men behave that is for sure.
As we get deeper into the story and wondering if Dima and his family will be given a chance for freedom it gets darker and the tension really does increase. Leading to some very edgy scenes and I certainly thought that was one of the best moments in the film near the end with the safe house.
With the characters not being totally likeable and having a lot of history (backgrounds briefly told for each of them) it did make it more difficult to like it. So I thought it was just ok, it wasn’t bad but it also wasn’t good. Just that mediocre middle ground of a film. It did certainly try very hard to have an interesting plot, but the characters were lacking.
Although I must admit that Stellan Skarsgard was the outstanding performance in the film and I was massively impressed with his charisma and scene stealing moments. With Ewan McGregor adding a reserved performance which was good, for a man who was unsure of his new found world a far cry from his day job as a University lecturer.
If you are a big fan of thriller’s then this film might be for you, but I would not recommend rushing out to see it at the cinema in all honesty.
