tabuno
06-02-2013, 08:18 PM
What first comes to mind is Three Days of Condor (1975) with child. Without thankfully the Jason Bourne, trained assassin brainwashed abilities, this espionage thriller is much better without them. With the typical, yet not over the top, father-daughter conflicts of the clueless father, this movie moves right into a seat of your pants thriller that is gripping in its intensity and believability. Following the plot outline of such a movie as Enemy of the State (1998), it brings the off-balanced notion of an everyman who is caught up in some out of control spy game, a nerve-wracking experience, especially when including the additional element of having a teenage daughter’s safety to look after. [Not having seen Taken 2 (2013) to compare to, it is unfortunately not one that can be contrasted to at this point].
At some point with the resurgence of shooting and the daughter-father conflict escalating into the “I don’t know you” theme, the movie appears to get ragged, predictable perhaps, unreasonable maybe, nevertheless, at the same time, it could also be paradoxically more authentic in its unevenness than the scripted elegance of a Bourne Identity (2002) movie. The balance between absurd and realism of a movie is one of fine, blurred distinction and perhaps only an audience’s subjective response to it. The near misses, the convenient getaways that are not quickly edited to the next shot all begin to border on trying the suspension of belief or increasing sense of irritating bumbling in order to maintain the script’s plot. Even the small detail of using drinking alcohol to disinfect a wound when supposedly medical supplies had been taken from a hospital make for increasing skepticism of the integrity of the movie even as a bonding moment is taking place.
The plot twists in this movie that begin to occur by the first third of the movie are above average, avoiding the typical clear good-guy/bad-guy distinction, making for a more emotionally intriguing plot narrative. But then when the daughter seems to be more in charge of a strategic negotiating situation (without any backstory) than her intelligence trained the irritating- factor rushes back in and later the daughter continues her take charge and predictable turnaround moments, though the father does take back some his proprietary role balancing the relationship. What makes this movie even more intriguing is the contrast between Julia Stiles performance and role in Bourne Supremacy (2007) and Bourne Ultimatum (2007) as a CIA technical assistant and the daughter in this movie.
The use of Bourne-like musical themes are a mixed blessing in part in helping evoking that foreign suspense-action motif but at the same time threatening to cheapen the movie as a rip-off or just another copy-cat. While such inconsistencies occur, the use of hiding out seems rather novel or rarely depicted in espionage movies, even departing from that used in the Bourne Identity, and to good effect.
The action later in the movie is sometimes subtle, implicit, and at times quite effective. There are weapons fire that resemble actual shots from shoot out scenes on the news. There is an attempt at further father-daughter conflict as part of the plot outline that is somewhat unusual in its persistence and moves toward making the movie more engrossing and there’s the rendezvous meeting strategic that is as compelling as from any other spy movie. The music also changes to a fresher, original exciting, moving serious of tones. This darker industrial espionage plot will include gritty deaths, darken bruised hands of the protagonist that add to the hard hitting pounding music leading to its climax. It’s hard to really judge this movie as it is both more authentic in its intelligent simplicity and yet it doesn’t have the consistently tight editing and story detail such as found in the Bourne series. Perhaps one can find a more sensitive and deeply character and relational spy movie in Cuba Good Jr.’s Shadowboxer (2005) or Matt Damon’s The Good Shepherd (2006) or even Jennifer Garner’s Elektra (2005). Nevertheless, Daniel Craig continues to maintain a solid hold with his own version of the gritty spy superhero that includes emotional pathos in Casino Royale (2006) or the more focused character study as found in Chris Cooper’s performance in Breach (2007).
At some point with the resurgence of shooting and the daughter-father conflict escalating into the “I don’t know you” theme, the movie appears to get ragged, predictable perhaps, unreasonable maybe, nevertheless, at the same time, it could also be paradoxically more authentic in its unevenness than the scripted elegance of a Bourne Identity (2002) movie. The balance between absurd and realism of a movie is one of fine, blurred distinction and perhaps only an audience’s subjective response to it. The near misses, the convenient getaways that are not quickly edited to the next shot all begin to border on trying the suspension of belief or increasing sense of irritating bumbling in order to maintain the script’s plot. Even the small detail of using drinking alcohol to disinfect a wound when supposedly medical supplies had been taken from a hospital make for increasing skepticism of the integrity of the movie even as a bonding moment is taking place.
The plot twists in this movie that begin to occur by the first third of the movie are above average, avoiding the typical clear good-guy/bad-guy distinction, making for a more emotionally intriguing plot narrative. But then when the daughter seems to be more in charge of a strategic negotiating situation (without any backstory) than her intelligence trained the irritating- factor rushes back in and later the daughter continues her take charge and predictable turnaround moments, though the father does take back some his proprietary role balancing the relationship. What makes this movie even more intriguing is the contrast between Julia Stiles performance and role in Bourne Supremacy (2007) and Bourne Ultimatum (2007) as a CIA technical assistant and the daughter in this movie.
The use of Bourne-like musical themes are a mixed blessing in part in helping evoking that foreign suspense-action motif but at the same time threatening to cheapen the movie as a rip-off or just another copy-cat. While such inconsistencies occur, the use of hiding out seems rather novel or rarely depicted in espionage movies, even departing from that used in the Bourne Identity, and to good effect.
The action later in the movie is sometimes subtle, implicit, and at times quite effective. There are weapons fire that resemble actual shots from shoot out scenes on the news. There is an attempt at further father-daughter conflict as part of the plot outline that is somewhat unusual in its persistence and moves toward making the movie more engrossing and there’s the rendezvous meeting strategic that is as compelling as from any other spy movie. The music also changes to a fresher, original exciting, moving serious of tones. This darker industrial espionage plot will include gritty deaths, darken bruised hands of the protagonist that add to the hard hitting pounding music leading to its climax. It’s hard to really judge this movie as it is both more authentic in its intelligent simplicity and yet it doesn’t have the consistently tight editing and story detail such as found in the Bourne series. Perhaps one can find a more sensitive and deeply character and relational spy movie in Cuba Good Jr.’s Shadowboxer (2005) or Matt Damon’s The Good Shepherd (2006) or even Jennifer Garner’s Elektra (2005). Nevertheless, Daniel Craig continues to maintain a solid hold with his own version of the gritty spy superhero that includes emotional pathos in Casino Royale (2006) or the more focused character study as found in Chris Cooper’s performance in Breach (2007).