May 2, 2010
A cruddy, corkscrew thriller. Two kidnappers, one girl. A flat, a van, a wood and a warehouse. Add a surprising number of twists. And you get The Disappearance of Alice Creed, a low-key, squirmy movie with an impressive physical performance from Gemma Arterton.
Ex-cons Vic and Danny have it planned. Snatch a girl (Arterton) and take £2 million from her rich daddy. Then get away clean. Cool-headed Vic (Eddie Marsan, Happy Go Lucky) has the balls and the gun. But Danny’s resolve is about to be tested: a plan on paper is one thing; a girl chained to a bed is another. Can the kidnappers keep it together? And is their hostage as helpless as they think?
Opening with a wordless sequence as Vic and Danny soundproof a dowdy flat, Alice Creed immediately nails its credentials. Not only pressing the intrigue button from the off, but presaging the film’s strongest card: its action and acting. Truth be told, the script is pedestrian and repetitive. Looks and stares are the flesh and bone of the film.
Like Alice tied up in the dark, silence is everything. Danny trying to flush an incriminating clue down the loo. Vic’s cold-eyed suspicion of Danny’s loss of appetite. But it’s Alice’s plight that sears. The degradation of having to pee in a plastic bottle as the kidnappers look on. Stripping her to take photos for the ransom demand. Arterton’s anguish and cunning are feral.
Eddie Marsan – the go-to guy for impressive character acting – is suitably menacing as Vic. His gangster cameo in gross-out comedy I Want Candy was scarier. But Marsan knuckles this down into a nuanced performance: you sense the crimes that got him into prison; you believe he’ll kill her if he has to. Ex- Bond girl Arterton – the pin-up of summer blockbuster Prince of Persia - plays a blinder as the blindfolded, trussed up victim. Cowering, fighting, pleading and plotting, she’s got the biggest journey and takes us with her. And it’s a bruising ride.
Writer-director J Blakeson scores when he lets his camera do the talking. His plot-twists work well. Only once is the action clichéd: a moment which only people in movies do, when the audience knows full well you’d just get the hell out.
A tense, grungy thriller, The Disappearance of Alice Creed is effective, even innovative. With a set-up akin to horror-pic The Cottage, this is much less flip. Serious not self-conscious, more like last year’s small-cast, low-budget Hush. It’s an unpretentious, reality-based nailbiter.
As always, Marsan’s the man to watch. But Arterton’s the heart of the film.
Ex-cons Vic and Danny have it planned. Snatch a girl (Arterton) and take £2 million from her rich daddy. Then get away clean. Cool-headed Vic (Eddie Marsan, Happy Go Lucky) has the balls and the gun. But Danny’s resolve is about to be tested: a plan on paper is one thing; a girl chained to a bed is another. Can the kidnappers keep it together? And is their hostage as helpless as they think?
Opening with a wordless sequence as Vic and Danny soundproof a dowdy flat, Alice Creed immediately nails its credentials. Not only pressing the intrigue button from the off, but presaging the film’s strongest card: its action and acting. Truth be told, the script is pedestrian and repetitive. Looks and stares are the flesh and bone of the film.
Like Alice tied up in the dark, silence is everything. Danny trying to flush an incriminating clue down the loo. Vic’s cold-eyed suspicion of Danny’s loss of appetite. But it’s Alice’s plight that sears. The degradation of having to pee in a plastic bottle as the kidnappers look on. Stripping her to take photos for the ransom demand. Arterton’s anguish and cunning are feral.
Eddie Marsan – the go-to guy for impressive character acting – is suitably menacing as Vic. His gangster cameo in gross-out comedy I Want Candy was scarier. But Marsan knuckles this down into a nuanced performance: you sense the crimes that got him into prison; you believe he’ll kill her if he has to. Ex- Bond girl Arterton – the pin-up of summer blockbuster Prince of Persia - plays a blinder as the blindfolded, trussed up victim. Cowering, fighting, pleading and plotting, she’s got the biggest journey and takes us with her. And it’s a bruising ride.
Writer-director J Blakeson scores when he lets his camera do the talking. His plot-twists work well. Only once is the action clichéd: a moment which only people in movies do, when the audience knows full well you’d just get the hell out.
A tense, grungy thriller, The Disappearance of Alice Creed is effective, even innovative. With a set-up akin to horror-pic The Cottage, this is much less flip. Serious not self-conscious, more like last year’s small-cast, low-budget Hush. It’s an unpretentious, reality-based nailbiter.
As always, Marsan’s the man to watch. But Arterton’s the heart of the film.