★★
“The Unusual Suspects.”
I gave serious consideration as to not covering this here, since it is kinda fringe. The protagonist, Rebecca Kamen (Cornish), spends much of the movie handcuffed. This is not particularly conducive to action. But there are just about enough moments, as shown, where she gets her hands on a firearm, to crawl over the qualifying threshold. Don’t expect much in the way of girls-with-guns action. In fact, don’t expect much, full stop. For as the tagline above suggests, I preferred this the first time I watched it, when it was called The Usual Suspects. It begins with the police investigating a scene involving arson and murder, where one victim attempted to paint a name in their blood on the wall: “Jovan”.
We then flash back to Kamen awakening in police custody, with no memory of how she got there. Seems she got off her face on drink and/or drugs, and mowed down a pedestrian. At least, that’s the story told to her by detectives Avery (Alonso) and Moon (Bloodgood). However, as things unfold, it becomes clear this is not a genuine police station. This isn’t much of a spoiler, because that fact is revealed relatively early in the process. It’s unfortunate, however, because this is the main point of originality which it has to offer. Turns out, Rebecca was involved in the disappearance of a large sum of money – Avery says eight million dollars, she rejects the figure, and suggests the legendary Jovan is responsible.
Regardless, Avery and team intend to pry it out of her. What follows is an hour of steadily decreasing returns, beginning with me thinking “They’re not going to go there, are they?” and ending with the sad realization, “They went there, didn’t they.” Cornish, whom you might remember from Sucker Punch, is actually the best thing about this. She starts off by playing the complete innocent, and you believe she genuinely has no idea why she is there. But an ability to read people like a world-class poker player, allows Rebecca to manipulate those who are trying to manipulate her. Consequently, it’s not long before ever-deepening cracks start to show in the facade of the opposing team.
In particular, Avery – who was best friends with the previous owner of the cash – is prepared to go far further in compelling Kamen to open up her back account. The problem is, having initially shown the extraordinary lengths to which the gang are prepared to go to fake things, the viewer is left thoroughly suspicious of everything which follows. This is up to and including death threats aimed at small children: I was left thinking, “Yeah, sure…” The scepticism is, if you can to begin with, get past the completely unnecessary complexity of the original plan. I’d have bypassed all of it, and gone straight for the fingernail ripping. I guess that preference for the simpler solution is probably why I didn’t grow up to become a Bond villain.
Dir: Felipe Mucci
Star: Abbie Cornish, Laz Alonso, Moon Bloodgood, John Patrick Amedori