There are certain devices in scripts that I would consider a cop-out. Voiceover is one. Often voiceover is used to fill in the blanks that a better writer would be able to do without VO. It’s especially obvious when the voiceover happens just once or twice, as opposed to throughout. Another device that often doesn’t work is messing with time. Flashing forward, flashing back, back and forth in time. It adds a feel of complexity, but often that’s all it is. The story itself isn’t complex, just the method of revealing it. (Soderbergh’s Out of Sight is one of the best films to smartly use the jumping around in time, for story over complexity)
That’s the biggest problem with director John Madden’s film, itself a remake of a 2007 Israeli film. It opens in the present, with Helen Mirren and her scarred face. Then we flashback to something climatic that happened in the past. Then forward. Then back to before that flashback, staying there for some time. Now, it would seem that the reason for the early climatic flashback is to set the stage for a “twist” in the narrative later on. But, without giving away too much, the fact that the climatic thing is shown, and then the majority of the film’s action after that reveal is the action leading up to that moment, means that there’s no real stakes in what you’re watching. Like the Star Wars prequels, you know what it’s all leading to, so you’re not too worried that our heroes are in any real danger. You’ve seen them alive in the present, so they’ll be okay in the past. It becomes just the ‘how’ of the thing, without any investment.
Then it leads up to a twist, which reveals that you’ve been lied to in some way. And that’s fine, there’s nothing like thinking you know what’s up and being wrong. But it’s just the way it’s structured here, with the present day trio and the flashback and then forward and back; the result is the worst possible way to use the time jumping and twist reveal devices. My reaction was just, “oh, it’s not like that but like this? Okay.” And the impact of that twist on the characters seems to fall aside, not important to the story. It should be huge for them, but instead the script just hopes the audience’s feeling of “twist!” should be enough without exploring the emotional toll of said twist on the characters experiencing it.
Obviously it’s hard to get any more specific without ruining the film, so I’ll stop. The acting here is good (Jessica Chastain, in yet another film!), the direction capable. But in the end, the desire for a rope-a-dope in the story sucks all of the suspense out of a potentially tense thriller.
