Dead Man Down Review

Rated R (Violence, Language Throughout and a Scene of Sexuality)

Running Time: 1 Hour & 50 Minutes

Cast-

Colin Farrell-Victor

Noomi Rapace-Beatrice Louzon

Terrence Howard-Alphonse Hoyt

Dominic Cooper-Darcy

Isabelle Huppert-Valentine Louzon

F. Murray Abraham-Gregor

Armand Assante-Lon Gordon

Luis Da Silva Jr.-Terry

Stu Bennett/Wade Barrett-Kilroy

Frank Gonzales-Luco

James Biberi-Ilir

William Zielinski-Alex

Directed by Niels Arden Oplev

Director Niels Arden Oplev makes his American debut with revenge thriller "Dead Man Down," starring Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace.

Note: Screened on Thursday, March 7, 2013 at AMC Loews 34th Street 14.

'The best-laid plans of mice and men / Often go awry.' If there's one thing the movies have taught us, it's that revenge never turns out the way we want it to be. This proves to be the case in "Dead Man Down" from Danish director Niels Arden Oplev, making his American debut after he took the film world by storm with his 2009 adaptation of Stieg Larsson's best-selling novel, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (which was subsequently remade in 2011 by David Fincher). Oplev is also reuniting with Swedish actress Noomi Rapace, whose intense performance as Lisbeth Salander caught the attention of Hollywood and catapulted her to international superstardom. Co-starring with Rapace is Colin Farrell and Terrence Howard but despite the stellar cast and Oplev's pedigree, it doesn't seem like FilmDistrict has much confidence in the film due to the relative lack of marketing. Another bad sign was that reviews didn't start to appear until Thursday afternoon and the fact that similar R-rated offerings have all flopped at the box office in the past two months. Still, I held out hope that the film would turn out good and become something of a sleeper hit. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Oplev's direction is solid while Rapace and Farrell manage to deliver compelling performances but "Dead Man Down" is ultimately undone by an absurd plot that's constantly at odds with itself and a plodding pace that reduces its dual revenge stories into a tedious chore. 

Crime boss Alphonse Hoyt (Terrence Howard) finds himself being hunted by an unknown assailant when one of his associates turns up dead with his body stuffed inside a refrigerator. He sends low-level enforcers Victor (Colin Farrell) and Darcy (Dominic Cooper) to find out who is targeting him and his crew but little does Alphonse know that the man responsible is hiding in plain sight among them. Two years ago, a group of thugs hired by Alphonse killed Victor's wife and daughter. Now Victor wants revenge, having infiltrated Alphonse's organization under a new identity in order to get close to the crime boss and kill him. However, his plans are interrupted when he forms an unexpected connection with Beatrice (Noomi Rapace), a lonely woman living in the apartment across from his. Her face scarred from a car accident caused by a drunk driver, Beatrice reveals that she has incriminating evidence of Victor committing murder but she agrees not to go to the authorities on the condition that he kill the one responsible for disfiguring her. 

"Dead Man Down" is one frustrating film to watch. It's well-directed and well-acted but the story (written by Joel 'J. H.' Wyman) fails to really engage and almost put me to sleep. The pacing in the first half is glacial as the film tries to weave some sort of complex mystery, keeping Victor's motivations under wraps yet all it does is turn what should've been a straightforward plot into something that's needlessly convoluted. I kept trying to discern how Beatrice's revenge related to Victor's (maybe the drunk driver happened to be one of Alphonse's men) but there's absolutely no connection between the two subplots. That's one of the problems with "Dead Man Down": it's constantly at odds with itself. You have Beatrice's revenge and Victor's revenge running through the film simultaneously and vying for our attention. Sadly, it's hard to feel invested in either because they're just so poorly integrated. The dialogue is often too melodramatic and heavy-handed, with the two main characters wallowing in their own hopelessness even though they can easily walk away at any time. As it progresses, the story becomes harder and harder to swallow and takes a turn toward the absurd. Victor is trying to avenge the deaths of his wife and daughter but he sure takes his sweet time doing it. Even his wife's uncle (F. Murray Abraham) is wondering why he's taking so long. Later, we learn that Victor is planning to lure Alphonse and the thugs he hired to a warehouse wired with explosives yet just a few moments ago, he was hiding in a Manhattan rooftop (in broad daylight) trying to pull off an assassination. Of course, no police arrive and Beatrice actually locates Victor just by looking at her side-view mirror. All of that meticulous planning eventually gets thrown out the window as Oplev abandons subtlety in favor of making things go boom in a weak attempt to win over action junkies (one of the film's co-financiers is WWE Studios). The slow-burn pace exhibits a distinctive European flavor but from time to time, an action scene is thrown in at random, as if Oplev can't decide whether he wants to make a character-driven revenge thriller or an action film. As a meditation on the nature of revenge, "Dead Man Down" is a failure. None of its themes are particularly noteworthy or original and the story ultimately moves too slowly to hold our attention. 

Thankfully, the performances manage to make the viewing experience more tolerable. Colin Farrell has always been an underrated actor and while the role of Victor isn't exactly challenging, he still treats it seriously by instilling the character with a deep pain that he constantly has to bury in order to complete the task at hand. Noomi Rapace once again does not disappoint. She captures Beatrice's vulnerability and her need to make an emotional connection but there's also a seething rage that threatens to overtake her. Despite the film's constant reminders that Beatrice is disfigured, she's hardly a 'monster.' In fact, she's quite beautiful, although that's really more a credit to Rapace. Terrence Howard unfortunately doesn't fare as well. He's little more than a caricature and a laughable one at that. Dominic Cooper is solid as one of Alphonse's men who get to play detective while Isabelle Huppert seems to have wandered in from a completely different film. F. Murray Abraham and Armand Assante pop up in cameo roles but their characters are largely inconsequential. 

"Dead Man Down" was released on March 8, 2013 to negative reviews with 37% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics agreed that 'the fine cast keeps [the film] watchable throughout, [but] is weighted down by absurd plot twists and a slack pace.' Screened a mere four hours before its general release, audience reaction was mixed. Some reacted with laughter to the overly-serious dialogue while others simply fell asleep. With little to no marketing from FilmDistrict, it came as no surprise when the film flopped at the weekend box office with a paltry debut of $5.35 million. 2013 certainly hasn't been kind to R-rated action/revenge films. Despite having a great cast and director, "Dead Man Down" is unfortunately a missed opportunity. The potential for a good film is there but there are just too many issues working against it to warrant a full recommendation.

Final Rating: 2.5 out of 5

"The person doing this to me, he's hurt. Someone who lost someone, like the people in the picture, and he's in a great deal of pain because of that, and it's a pain that I've caused. Victor, I want him to know something. I want him to know, if there's anything left in this world that he still cares about, I'm going to find it…and I'm going to burn it down."