Unlocked
3 stars
Director: Michael Apted
Stars: Noomi Rapace, Orlando Bloom, Toni Collette
Duration: 98 mins
Class: 15
KRS Releasing Ltd

Swedish actress Noomi Rapace forged a career in Hollywood on the back of her astounding turn as one of the most compelling female heroines in European cinema history: Lisbeth Salander in the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its sequels.

After not making it to the Ameri­can remake of the former – that honour went to Rooney Mara, herself now being replaced for the next one – Rapace went on to display commendable versati­lity in a number of films. Yet she shows she still boasts exceptional action chops in this hackneyed thriller, which benefits greatly from her mere presence.

Rapace plays Alice Racine, a CIA operative now working at a desk job in London after she failed to prevent a terrorist attack in Paris years before that left many dead. Reluctantly drawn back into action when a plot to unleash a bio-weapon on London is disco­vered, Racine discovers that those above her in the agency are not necessarily on her side.

Unlocked does not unlock the potential for a new female-led franchise

With the guidance of her mentor Eric Lasch (Michael Douglas) and ex-soldier-turned-burglar Jack Alcott (Orlando Bloom) in tow, Racine goes on the hunt for those plotting the attack. Given the A-list cast – John Malkovich and Toni Collette give additional heft – and the director Michael Apted (with a string of solid hits on his CV, including Bond outing The World is not Enough) you’d be forgiven for expecting a better result than what unfolds here.

But, sadly, Unlocked does not unlock the potential for a new female-led franchise in the Jason Bourne or James Bond mold. That is a shame, for it is, in fact, the female lead Rapace – and also Collette’s steely MI5 agent Emily Knowles – who make the biggest impact, leaving their male co-stars in the dust.

Rapace certainly has a good grip on the woman-with-a-mysterious-past trope, given her Salander credentials. But she is also a good enough actor not to fall back on an old bag of tricks. So much so that, from the basic material offered by screenwriter Peter O’Brien, she creates in Racine a three-dimensional character haunted by her inaction in the past and reluctant to get out in the field again.

It is an engaging and eminently watchable performance.

Her preoccupations are etched on her face and – in one of the film’s best scenes – you can almost see her mind ticking over as she realises the CIA has clearly been compromised and she has found herself in a terribly dangerous position. However, hers is not just a cerebral performance. She kicks good butt when called upon to do so, and it is her performance alone that adds spice to this otherwise bland spy thriller.

Collette creates a character we want to see more of, with her sharp haircut, attitude and wit – she and Malkovich’s droll ex­changes are a highlight of the film. Yet most of the male headliners seem to be sleepwalking through their roles – Douglas the ‘eminence gris’ of the piece, albeit with his own agenda; Malkovich as yet another CIA chief with little personality (which only comes out in the afore-mentioned exchanges with Knowles), while Orlando Bloom sports a silly hair-do and dodgy accent as Alcott. He feels too much like he was thrown in there to add some spark that he forgot to bring to the party.

Otherwise, the plot is too concerned with the obligatory shoot-outs in car parks and hotel rooms, twists and double twists that come as a surprise to no-one. One character’s early de­mise is a little suspicious, and it doesn’t take an undercover spy to realise that it was no coincidence that Bloom’s character was trying to rob Alice’s apartment.

O’Brien’s script relies too much on clichés of the genre, while, frustratingly, a plot thread that eschews the stereotype of the Imam/terrorist in Makram Khoury’s Yazid Khaleel, a key figure in the unfolding plot who is not all he is made out to be, is discarded  for the more obvious elements of the story.

The ending hints at a sequel, which I doubt will ever come to fruition, but it would certainly be welcome if Rapace and Collette were brought on to reprise their roles.