Duo on the hunt

Dead Man Down (2013)
Certified: 16
Duration: 117 minutes
Directed by: Niels Arden Oplev
Starring: Colin Farrell, Noomi Rapace, Dominic Cooper, Terrence Howard, Isabelle Huppert, Luis Da Silva, Wade Barrett, F. Murray Abraham, Armand Assante
KRS release

A man with a past (Colin Farrell) has a dangerous mission in life.

The film has guts and fights like an old wrestler’s for the audience’s attention

Born in Hungary, Lazlo was married and had a child but both his wife and child died when they were caught in a fight between crime bosses over a piece of turf/housing in the New York Metro area that also involved Albanian thugs.

Since then, he took on the name of Victor and became part of Manhattan crime boss Alphonse’s (Terrence Howard) posse. His objective is to avenge his family.

When his neighbour Beatrice (Noomi Rapace) starts to interest herself in him, his life gets complicated. She has a video of him killing off one of Alphonse’s men and blackmails him with it so that he does a job for her.

Beatrice is physically scarred due to a drunk driver who is now back on the street. She wants him dead or she will show the video to anyone who wants to see it.

As Victor and Beatrice become closer, the two develop something more than friendship and at the same time Beatrice starts to understand that Victor’s past is filled with tragedy.

Victor is running against time: he wants revenge but wants to avoid harming Darcy (Dominic Cooper), one of Alphonse’s men whom he befriended; catch Ilir (James Biberi), an Albanian crime lord; and make sure that Beatrice and her mother Valentine (Isabelle Huppert) do not come to any harm.

Dead Man Down is a thriller that comes packaged with enough sparks and unusual fare to make it a very interesting watch. Director Niels Arden Oplev, who had directed the first film in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, manages to mix characterisation, suspense elements and neo-noir. I believe it is his touches that give this film its European cinema feel, with a beating heart and box of emotional twists.

Here Oplev once again teams up with Rapace who had given the character of Lisbeth Salander such strength and depth.

Most of all, Dead Man Down is filled with personality: it has guts and fights like an old wrestler for the audience’s attention and is not afraid to be tough about it. It throws its audience astray on a wild goose chase, provides them with a cacophony of noise and information and then reels them back in.

Farrell gives the film its soul: he performs acts of violence and gunplay with both realism and cinematic sensationalism. He and Rapace form a great couple.

Rapace has a sort of raw beauty and manages to show both a tough façade and a softer side, and she embodies loneliness in a perfect manner.

The action sequences are also well handled.

Dead Man Down is stylish and engaging and in Farrell and Rapace’s company, you know you are in for some good times.