Product Description
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Victor (Farrell), a professional killer and the right hand man
to an underground crime lord in New York City (Howard), is
seduced and blackmailed by Beatrice (Rapace), a crime victim
seeking retribution. Their chemistry and intense relationship
leads them to execute a violent and cathartic plan for revenge.
.com
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A crime thriller that is both thoughtful and fueled by violent
brutality, Dead Man Down often seems like two different movies
that pass in the night. It is dark, gritty, and explosive in
style and substance, yet it often takes long, languorous breaks
for moments of tenderness and human connection between a handful
of deeply red souls with differing goals but related agendas.
The s are figurative for Victor (Colin Farrell), a stalwart
Hungarian immigrant driven toward vengeance after the murder of
his wife and daughter by a crime syndicate equally leveraged into
drugs and real estate. His real name is Laszlo, and the crime
lord Alphonse (Terrence Howard) believes he had been dispatched
along with his family. In an elaborate plan, Victor/Laszlo has
infiltrated Alphonse's gang as a loyal soldier to get close
enough to kill them all. For Beatrice (Noomi Rapace), a lonely
woman whose apartment balcony faces Victor's, the s are
literal. She was disfigured in an accident caused by a recidivist
drunk driver and wants her own deadly revenge. It's not hard to
see where the relationship between Victor and Beatrice is heading
once they meet and their individual goals are held up to the
moral standards that were irreparably damaged by their tragedies.
Beatrice is able to blackmail Victor to do her bidding even as
Victor is up to his neck in an extremely complicated game to burn
up his own past. And burn many things he does, including people,
a bomb-laden pickup truck, and an elegant mansion where the last
stand of a chaotic climax unfolds. Along the way there are
several fierce battles and moments of disturbingly
viciousness that lend Dead Man Down a defiant edge in the genre
of dark crime dramas. The highlight is a broad-daylight shootout
and foot chase on a busy Manhattan street that features swooping
camerawork, a progression of breathtaking practical stunt
effects, and smart pacing that ends abruptly in calm as the
players disappear into plain . J.H. Wyman's unusually
structured script, with its extended pauses of meaningful quiet
and bursts of terrible ferocity, is made better by the skill of
Danish director Niels Arden Oplev in his American feature debut.
Oplev made the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and he
brings out the best in bringing along Noomi Rapace, even though
the makeup of her facial damage doesn't really make her any less
beautiful. Colin Farrell still has not found his mid-career
stride, but his obsession and brooding brow give the tortured
Victor a motivation that is clearly felt. The acting is a bigger
bonus in some of the supporting roles, notably Dominic Cooper as
Victor's friend and fellow gangland soldier. F. Murray Abraham
appears as Victor's philosophical her-in-law, and it's
terrific to see Armand Assante chomping into the persona of a
quietly enraged mob boss. The iconic French actress Isabelle
Huppert takes a graceful and scene-stealing turn as Beatrice's
loving yet smothering mother. It's all an unusual mix of
character and story that makes Dead Man Down stand up with a life
all its own. --Ted Fry