Triple 9

From John Hillcoat the Australian filmmaker who gave us the enthralling apocalyptic thriller The Road comes a new modern day heist movie about a bunch of corrupt Atlanta cops and ex-soldiers who are about to pull off one last job for the Russian-Israeli Mafia. The gang's leader Michael Atwood (a terrific Chiwetel Ejiofor)  is pulled up sharp by the Mafia boss the ruthless Irina (a total scene-stealing Kate Winslet) who tells him that they will in fact have to stage yet another robbery or face very unfortunate circumstances which can get very personal for Michael as the mother of his child is Irina's younger sister.

Their new task is break into a Homeland Security bunker to steal the files from that, together with the contents of the Safe Deposit Box that they just raided a major bank for, will be enough evidence to free Irina's husband who is currently languishing in a prison cell as a 'guest' of Vladmir Putin.  When Michael appears reluctant to do Irina's bidding this time around, she sends a 'message' in the form of one of his gang members who is so badly beaten up he is practically dead that Michael has no alternative to than to finish the poor man off, and agree to Irina's demands.  

This action packed thriller is an ensemble piece that has more than its fair share of talented actors : the other gang members are played by Aaron Paul, Norman Reedus, Anthony Mackie and include a stand out performance by a sinister-looking Clifton Collins Jr. Mackie plays Detective Marcus Belmont who is assigned  a new partner at the Precinct a rather green and totally honest policeman called Chris Allen (a magnificent Casey Affleck).  Chris's uncle is the major crimes investigator on the force Jeffrey Allen (a wonderfully sardonic Woody Harrison) and he is determined to ape his success.

With his unbending ways Chris inadvertently becomes the perfect ruse to cover the impending robbery as the gang know that the best way to divert the attention of the entire police force is when one of their own is shot.  The code for that is 999 and implies that every officer must drop what they are doing and immediately rush to the scene. Marcus has no qualms about carrying the cold-blooded killing  out, but what seems like a foolproof plan on paper is never ever quite the same in reality.

Plenty of high speed car chases through Atlanta, incessant gun battles and some sheer bloody minded violence keeps the whole thing rattling on at quite a fast pace, and the fact that not all of the plot twists are that predictable make this (almost) two hour high octane thriller very diverting.  It is however without doubt the acting of its leads that lift it way above average, and Winslet and Harrelson in particular are a sheer joy to watch.

★★★★★★★★

Spectre

As always the latest James Bond movie is exceedingly silly and outrageously excessively over-the-top and exactly like Daniel Craig himself, we swear this may be the very last one we will  indulge ourselves in, knowing full well it certainly will not.  

Back in the directors chair for a second time, Sam Mendes makes sure that the extended chase scene that an 007 movie always opens with, is more spectacular than usual. It is a sensational rather manic white-knuckle action sequence in Mexico City for the Day of the Dead, which he does as one very long tracking shot that climaxes with a daring fight mid-air dangling from of an out-of-control helicopter. It actually gives an initial impression that he may even surpass the highly successfully "Skyfall" which was so wonderfully imaginative.

There are plenty of all the usual hallmarks of a traditional Bond movie to see,  but also more than its fair share of changes too.  M was killed off last time, and the new one is played by Ralph Fiennes who doesn't quite fill the big shoes left by Judi Dench whose scratchy relationship was so much more convincing. M has a new boss too called C (!) and played by a very young looking Andrew Scott  who,  heavens above, wants to scrap the whole spy program that Bond is a part off.  One of the few old faces is Q .... although it is hardly the right adjective for baby faced Ben Whishaw, but he seems more comfortable this time around giving 007 bigger and better 'toys' to ply his trade. When he foolishly mentions that the new whizzed up fully armed car he has designed is being allocated to another spy 009, it is obvious that Bond will end up with it.  And all the women too.

They start with a rather sultry Italian widow played by Monica Bellucci, but she is really an appetizer for the main course who is Dr Madeline Swann played very seductively by the french actress Léa Seydoux.

Blofeld the very sadistic Villain of the piece is played by Christoph Waltz who resorts to some wizardry high tech torture when he gets 007 where he wants him. It looks more than painful and not helped by a grinning Blofeld muttering ...."Out of horror, beauty".........but we know that Bond can and will survive this new fangled S & M even though it always seems like he won't.

Craig is still one of the very best actors who has donned the mantle of Ian Fleming's creation who has become the best, and most loved Spy in the world.  As well as Craig's stunning good looks and his over-pumped up body that has all his tight-fitting sleek suits straining at the seams, plus all his charm just oozing out, he has a great flair for adding the most perfect touch of sardonic irony that seems at times that he is actually making fun of himself.  He very seriously ensures that we do not take his version on 007 too seriously all the time, and encourages us to actually see how camp his character can be perceived. 

At the end of the day the 007 franchise is still one of the very best of all the blockbuster series that Hollywood spends its billions on, and we come to each new adventure with such high expectations. Compared to most other extravagant 'spy' thrillers, Spectre is still way out there ahead of the pack, but this time however it did not quite reach the giddy heights of Bond's last outing.

★★★★★★★★★

Phoenix

As WW2 ends German former nightclub singer Nelly is shot as she leaves Auschwitz and her face is severely disfigured. When she arrives back home to a war-torn Berlin, her best friend Lene takes control and whisks her off to see the best plastic surgeon money can buy. With all her Jewish family now dead as a result of the Nazi's genocide, Nelly is a wealthy heiress and the next thing on her schedule after getting a new face, is to stake a claim to her inheritance, and buy an apartment in Palestine and leave Germany for good.

The one fly in the ointment of this plan is that Nelly still wants to find her Aryan piano-player husband Johnny even though Lene tells her that not only is he a no-good philanderer, but it is more than likely he was the one who betrayed her hiding place to the Nazis which led to her being captured and imprisoned.  Undeterred Nelly sets off to search for him in local nightclubs where she is guessing that he may now work, and she finds him surprisingly very easily, but now, down on his luck, he is no longer performing but working as a cleaner who spends his night collecting and washing glasses. 

He fails to recognize her at all, but mistaking her for someone who is just looking for a job, he suggests that as she bears a passing resemblance to 'Nelly his wife'  that she should pretend to be her in order for him to claim her inheritance for himself.  As Johnny sets about training Nelly to impersonate herself he has absolutely no inkling of the truth, or even note that despite the fact he is a real rogue, that she is totally in love with him.

This wonderfully detailed snapshot of a Germany that is just starting to come to terms with the end of the war which has devastated the country and its people themselves is helmed by writer/director Christian Petzold.  It reunites him with his favorite actress Nina Hoss yet again, and together the two of them uniquely capture the essence of a trouble nation trying to get itself together after all of the trauma of war through this very simple story. Hoss gives a powerful performance as Nelly desperately trying to resist getting a new face or a new life as she wants to re-kindle something that was so far from perfect the first time around.  Husband Johnny is played forcefully by Ronald Zehrfeld who also starred with Hoss in Petzold's East German tale "Barbara" that was his country's official submission for a Best Foreign Picture Oscar Nomination in 2012.

The beauty of this particular piece is in the rather triumphant and somewhat unexpected ending which once again simply reminds what an extraordinary team that these three really are.

★★★★★★★★

Room

A twenty-seven year old woman who was kidnapped, has been held hostage trapped in a lock-tight and sound-proofed 11' x 11' garden shed for the past seven years. However two years into her capture after being continually raped by her kidnapper, she gave birth to a son called Jack.  The movie actually starts five years later on Jack's birthday in the place they both call Room. It is his entire world as it is literally the only one he has ever known beyond that of the 'make believe' one he sees on the television which he thinks actually consists inside the set itself. 

He has named everything inanimate in this small confined space like Table, Sink, and Toilet etc which he greets every morning when he awakes.  He and 'Ma' have a precise and detailed daily routine that includes doing chores, exercising together, elementary lessons and a time allotted when Jack is allowed to watch TV. When their captor they call 'Old Nick' makes his scheduled weekly visit to bring them supplies and force himself on Ma, Jack is secreted in a cot in the closet so that he is kept out of harms way. 

As the story unfolds, narrated by Jack, Ma starts to plot an escape plan and convinces her very overwhelmed five year old to go along with it.  When making him appear in a feverish state doesn't move Old Nick enough to take the boy to a hospital ER, then Ma resorts to pretending that Jack has died as a result of his untreated illness and demands that he take the body wrapped up in a carpet to dispose of it somewhere.

Its a daring plan that all hinges on a very frightened Jack who has to get away from Old Nick in the daylight of an outside and confusing world that he has never ventured forth into.  He succeeds but only after more than a fair share of highly dramatic moments with the real possibility of him being caught and having to take the full consequences of Old Nick's violent temper.

Adapting to freedom and life outside Room is however far from easy for either Jack or Ma sheltered in the house of her now divorced mother and her new stepdad.  Jack's moods alternates between bewilderment, fear and tantrums as he tries to come to terms with the fact that he is expected to live a life that he only thought existed inside of his television.  Ma also has her own problems adjusting as she feels like she has simply swapped her imprisoned life for that of an emotional kind of prison of her parents.

Written by Emma Donoghue from her own bestselling novel of the same name, the story has been brought so compellingly to the screen by Irish filmmaker Lenny Abrahamson ('Frank'). With half of it being played out in such a very small confined space and starring just two people, one of whom is a 5 year old boy, this was no mean feat to pull off.  Yet he did it, and  with such finesse that the result is one of the very best new movies of the season.  Credit to his spot on casting choices of Brie Larson ('The Spectacular Now') giving a positively electrifying performance as a frightened and scared Ma determined to make the world a safe place for Jack. It's a career defining moment for Ms Larson that will inevitable have her, and the film itself, showing up on numerous Award lists very shortly.

How Abrahamson coaxed such a phenomenal performance from 8 year old Jacob Tremblay, who as Jack was on screen for most of the entire two hours, is a sheer wonder.  Young Tremblay portrays the bewildered Jack so naturalistically with a talent and a confidence that would be remarkable at any age, let alone one so very young.  The kid has all the makings of becoming a major star.

The whole movie hinges on these two central performances and because they are so awe-inspiring they do in a way overshadow the excellent work of the crew such as the set designer and the soundtrack composer who were crucial elements of creating its success.  So too were the fine supporting cast led by Joan Allen, William H Macy and Tom McCamus.

Room is one of those rare breed of movies whose reality far exceeds its expectations, and for once actually does real justice to the original story. It's one that you will not want to miss.

★★★★★★★★★

SLOW WEST

16-year-old Jay Cavendish travels from Scotland to Colorado in hot pursuit of the object of his affections after she had to flee the country in haste when her father had accidentally killed a local aristocratic landowner.  It’s the 1880’s and the naïve young Scot is totally unprepared for the rough Wild West and all the danger he encounters, but fortunately for him he is rescued by Silas a rugged frontiersman who agrees to help shepherd and protect the young man for a small fee until he finds his precious Rose.

What Jay doesn’t realize is that Silas has an ulterior motive that he doesn’t reveal to his new charge that he too is looking for Rose and her father as there is a price on both of their heads.  He hopes that Jay will lead him there quicker than all the other bounty hunters out to cash in on rewards offered for the two fugitives from the law.  However even Silas cannot protect them from an attack when they get caught in the cross-fire when a desperate immigrant and his wife hold up the general store to feed their starving children in one of the many scenes of bloody violence that pervade this story.

Written and directed by Scottish musician turned filmmaker John MacLean, this debut feature of a hybrid western is a coming-of-age tale, a romance and a thriller too. Right from the start, it is fairly obvious that this is not going to end happily. ‘There’s much more to life than just survival,’ Jay tells Silas at one point to which he replies. ‘Yeah, there’s dying.’ When they finally catch up with their quarry in the midst of the plains there is a lengthy savage shoot-out between them and the gang of thuggish gun-slinging hunters.  Even with its excessive bloodshed that seems almost unending at times, it is an impressive spellbinding beautifully staged finale to this intriguing wee film.

Starring a scrawny looking Kodi Smit-McPhee who caused such a stir with his breakthrough performance in ‘The Road’ and who is now equally splendid as the determined young Jay. Alongside him is an intimidating Michael Fassbinder as Silas, a man of few words, but big on action

Credit also too the rather spectacular photography that turned the New Zealand stand-in-location into such a dramatic vista that really made the terrain so untamed and stunningly foreboding.  It helped it pick up a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

★★★★★★★★

A SECOND CHANCE

It’s only the ‘goodies’ that get a second chance in this new rather overwrought melodrama from Danish Oscar winning director Susanne Bier as the ‘baddies’ evidently do not deserve to dig themselves out of the hell holes of lives they have ended up with.  The action starts with Police Detective Andreas and his partner Simon bursting into a squalid apartment to arrest Tristan on drug charges when they discover a distraught crying baby lying in his own excrement. A horrified Andreas tries to get the Authorities involved, but Social Services claim that is still not enough cause to have him taken into care.

Meanwhile at Andreas own rather idyllic lakeside house that seems like something right out of the pages of Elle Décor, his wife Anne who is suffering from a serious strain of post-partum depression and is trying to cope with their own baby who seems to never stop crying.  On yet another restless night Andreas wakes up to the sound of Anne screaming her head off as she cannot get baby Alexander to wake up.  She refuses to accept that he is dead and in her hysterical state tells Andreas that if he takes the baby away, then she will kill herself.  After he gets her sedated and back to bed he drives off with the baby’s body to the hospital to do the right thing.  However somewhere along the way he comes up with the crazy idea of breaking into Tristan’s apartment and swapping Sofus his baby with dead Alexander.

Just when you are taken in and thinking that as unorthodox and immoral as this is, it maybe the best chance for poor neglected Sofus as obviously his drug-addled mother is not a fit person to be a mother, there is a sharp twist in the plot that surprises us …. and Andreas  …. as after all, nice middle-class Anne is even worse. It’s inevitable that Andreas is not going to get away with this audacious far-fetched scheme but he is relying on the fact that his Police partner Simon is a serious alcoholic and his judgment is befuddled when he is under the influence.  Also he believes that Tristan and his girlfriend Sanne have such little regard for baby Sofus that they will not even notice that he has been swapped.

Ms. Bier forsakes any hint of subtlety and lays on the drama very heavy handedly, and milks it even further with eerie nighttime shots of the mist over the lake accompanied by doom-laden music that tips you off that more tragedy is just around the corner.  The movie’s saving grace is its cast led by the rather dashing Nikolaj Coster-Waldau ( Jaime Lannister in ‘Game of Thrones’) back to his Danish roots as Andreas the father too perfect for his own good, and Nikolaj Lie Kaas as the lowlife Tristan.

The only one who comes out well from all this is Sofus who lives happily ever after with his mother who in the end, turned out to be the one who really did warrant that second chance.

★★★★★

HYENA

The ‘hyena’ in this slick and brutal crime thriller is a burly bent copper called Michael Logan who plays so closely with fire, he is definitely going to get more than his fingers burned if things turn out as badly as they probably will. The film opens with Logan taking a call and then driving off into the night to meet up with three equally brutish looking types who we assume are thuggish crooks. Putting on police vests and caps they burst into the back door of a nightclub and immediately set about beating up the guys running the place. Initially we assume they are fake cops, but after handcuffing the men and then helping themselves to all the cash and drugs in the place it is clear they are cops of the corrupt variety.

Next day a brutal pair of Albanian brothers suddenly interrupt a meeting with a Turkish drug dealer that Logan is planning on going into business with. Whilst Logan is quick enough to hide, the poor Turk is bloodily killed in what is the start of an incessant slew of seemingly endless violence that fills the next 112 minutes.  The Albanians are switching from prostitution and human trafficking into the drugs trade and are intent on taking over as the new crime lords in this very seedy part of Notting Hill, which looks nothing like the pretty gentrified area where Hugh Grant swept Julia Roberts off her feet.

Logan is convinced that he can deal with the ruthless Brothers, but as their reign of mindless bloody terror gets completely out of hand, it eventually becomes apparent that he too may also end up as one of their victims too.

The movie’s multi-layered story line gets extremely complicated and has more than it’s fair share of clichés. What is particularly depressing in this overtly masculine film for ‘big boys’ is like so many others in the genre, the only females portrayed are just sad hopeless victims. This is writer/director Gerard Johnson’s sophomore feature and once again he at least had the good sense to cast his cousin the actor Peter Ferdinando in the lead.  His performance as Logan was one of the best things in what is otherwise an rather annoying exercise of gratuitous violence that makes a Jason Statham flicks seem positively tame.  

P.S. The one other good element is the soundtrack by Matt Johnson aka THE THE.

★★★★

A MOST VIOLENT YEAR

Abel Morales wants to pursue the 'American dream' the right way. However his pushy wife Anna thinks otherwise. She is the daughter of the Brooklyn mobster who sold his small Heating Oil business to Morales in the first place, and Anna is well aware that if they are to be successful they will first have to effectively deal with thugs who run competitive businesses by far means and foul. Mainly the latter.

Its obvious from the start of the movie when yet another of Morales's tankers are hijacked and the driver is badly beaten that whoever is behind these incidents means to put the Morales out of business. As Anna keeps nagging to remind him, they are effectively at war. The trouble is they are not quite sure who with.

It's the 1980's and in a crime ridden New York City it is tough for a business like Morales not to have to resort to play dirty tricks to survive.  He has signed the biggest deal of his career to date when he agrees to buy an Oil Terminal from a group of savvy Hassidic Jews, and if fails to complete the purchase on time he stands to lose everything, including the oversized 'macmansion' he has just bought in the suburbs. When news of the deal goes public, then the campaign of terror against him is stepped up to try and ensure that he will not have enough funds to close the deal.

If that is not enough trouble, the Assistant D.A. is out to make a name for himself and be seen to be cleaning up the 'dirty' oil industry and is looking to charge Morales with multiple offences. This includes fraud and cooking the books, the latter being one of Anna's more accomplished talents.

This taut multi-layered tale of corruption and treachery is the third feature from writer/director J.C. Chandor who made such a splash with his debut movie 'Margin Call' in 2010 which became a sleeper hit. Chandor keeps the tension packed until the final credits roll when Morales, determined to keep to the moral ground, realises he has to be tougher than both the thugs out to ruin him but also his wife who has no problem at all resorting to whatever it takes to keep her family together and the business in tact.

With a really compelling performance from Oscar Isaac looking more like a new George Clooney matinee idol in every movie he stars in, who with his heavy Brooklyn accent is perfectly cast as Morales. He has such a commanding presence and its clear to see how he has jumped up into leading man status since his breakthrough performance in 'Inside Llewyn Davies'. Plus Jessica Chastain forsaking her copper tresses and going bossy blond, is splendid as the matter-of-fact tough cookie Anna. 

The cast also includes David Oyelowo (Martin Luther King in 'Selma'), and also funny man Albert Brooks playing it totally straight for a change as Morales's lawyer.

The cinematography by Bradford Young is helped by the New York setting in the heart of a very snowy winter, and his grey tones really capture the vintage feel of this period piece.  Credit too for something I rarely mention, but Armani really deserves singling out for the costumes, as I simply could not take my eyes of the long pale blue cashmere coat that Miss Chastain seemed to live in.

A Most Violent Year is an enthralling action packed ride from writer/director J.C.Chandor and one with an unusual 'message'. Playing it straight can work. Sometimes.

★★★★★★★★

THE DROP

This wonderful new crime thriller written by Denis Lehane ('Mystic River','Gone Baby Gone') set in Boston his hometown, is the story of Bob a solitary loner who is a bartender is his cousin Marv's bar. Well the name over the door is still Marv's but after he got heavily into debt gambling, he was forced to sell the place to a bunch of Chechen mobsters who kept him on as the manager.

Now the Bar is just one of many seedy watering holes in the city that, on any given night, is designated as the temporary bank for the gang's illicit cash.  When it's the turn of Marv's Bar to be 'the drop' envelopes stuffed full of cash are discreetly slipped across the counter throughout the night and go into a time release safe.  In the early hours of the morning the mobsters come around to the empty bar to remove the safe's entire contents.

Marv is still in debt, but this time not from gambling, but unpaid bills from the expensive nursing home where his elderly father resides, and so he decides that he will stage a hold-up of his own bar on 'the drop' night.  First he goes for a 'dry run' and gets a couple of inexperienced and petty criminals to rob the cash register one night.  This really annoys the Chechen boss who suspect foul play and turn the heat up on both Marv and Bob, who also attracts the attention of the investigating detective who recognises as the strange loner who attends Mass every morning.

Whatever Bob thinks may be going on here, he keeps to himself and focuses his attention on an abused pup he discovers, and on Nadia the pretty neighbor who offers to help him care for his new charge. Bob's charity quickly goes awry when he is visited by a menacing stranger called Eric Deeds who demands the return of the dog. and who also threatens Nadia turns out to be his ex-girlfriend who he also physically abused.

Deeds is recruited by Marv to replace the incompetent robbers who the Chechan's had tracked down and 'eliminated'.  Now as he enters Marv's Bar with a reluctant Nadia on his arm on a designated 'drop' night that Marv has mysteriously called in 'sick' Bob knows that something is about to go down and will not end well for maybe all of them.

This rather bloody and violent movie ended up being the late great James Gandolfini's last role. and in which as Marv he turns in his usual wonderful performance as the gruff big man who is clearly out of his depth with the new regime of mobsters that now reign in his town.  It is however the singularly impressive and ultra-sensitive performance of Tom Hardy as the quiet, intensely private bartender Bob that unquestionably steals this movie. The man seemingly gets better in every film he makes, but this will surely go down as one of his very best. Lehane had based the script on his short story 'Animal Rescue' and deliberately didn't pad out the tale, giving the actors perfect opportunities to help us try and figure out all the unspoken and implied sub-plots that were going on too.

Directed by Belgian Michaël R. Roskam ('Bullhead') who also cast one of his regular actors Matthias Schoenaerts as Deeds, and Swedish actress Noomi Rapace to complete this truly international cast.  'The Drop' is one of those 'small' movies that may never ever appear on people's radar, which is such a pity as the combination on Hardy and Gandolfini alone so deserves as audience. 

★★★★★★★★

HORNS

Daniel Radcliffe has made some interesting career choices since casting off his Harry Potter psyche, and his role in Alexandre Aja's romantic/comic/horror fable is no exception. Adapted from a novel by Stephen King's son Joe, this rather bizarre but completely absorbing thriller is the tale of a young man who, after he is wrongly accused of killing his girlfriend, turns into the Devil. Literally.

With the whole of the small town baying for his blood since he was acquitted for the murder of his childhood sweetheart through lack of evidence, Ig Perrish wakes up one morning with horns literally sprouting out of his forehead.  As he tries to get them removed he is somewhat surprised to discover that instead of people freaking out at the sight of them, they all immediately feel the need to impulsively over-share their darkest secrets with him. When Perrish realises the power the horns have given him he deliberately sets out to confront people to see if this compulsion to tell him the truth will help him discover who the actual murderer is.

It's a painful journey as part of what he uncovers is the knowledge that his own parents confess that they not only believe he is guilty of the crime but they actually want him to disappear for good. 'I don't want you to be my son anymore' his mother cries.  The only 'good' person who cannot even physically see the horns is Lee, his best friend and now a Public Defender who has been on Perrish's side the whole time.

As he starts piecing the puzzle together of what really happened on the fatal night, Perrish's horns get bigger and bigger and the story takes on even more of a Biblical context with scenes of writhing serpents coming to his aid.   Then as the tale finally reaches the part where the murderer is revealed it becomes a full-on horror story with Perrish relishing his incarnation as the Devil himself.

A rather wonderful Radcliffe is really at home in the part and convincingly plays the distraught boyfriend who steadfastly refuses to be intimidated by the hostile locals.  He is supported by fellow Brits Juno Temple as Merrin the poor dead girlfriend, and Max Minghella as Lee his childhood friend, and the cast is rounded off with James Remar and Kathleen Quinan as his parents and David Morse as Merrin's distraught father. Blink and you may miss the cameo appearance of the irrepressible Heather Graham as a very sexy waitress who suffers a snake attack for making up stories about Perrish. 

Aja, best known for the very scary 'The Hills Have Their Secrets' insures that this movie too is very bloody indeed (too much for my personal taste) but he also peppers the script with some very comic scenes verging on the bizarre which lighten the proceedings at time. Its wonderful setting on the Pacific Northwest adds a level of real beauty to the piece, but with a running time of 2 hours it is at least 30 minutes too long.

★★★★★★★

GONE GIRL

When the movie opens on a quiet July morning in a small Missouri town there is no visible indication we are looking at a man who has falling on hard times. It turns out that Nick Frost has been been virtually unemployed since being laid off from his job on a magazine in NY and is now penniless.  He and his wife live in a large ugly suburban house that they lease using the remains of her depleted trust fund, and this morning on his 5th wedding anniversary he is feeling sorry for himself and sipping a shot of Bourbon in the small empty bar he owns with his sister.  As he sounds off about the stale state of his marriage the telephone rings. Its his neighbour telling him that the front door of his house is wide open.

That's not the only thing he discovers when goes back home, as the house is totally deserted and furniture is turned over and broken as if there has been a struggle of sorts.  When the Police check it out they find signs of blood and enough clues to be concerned for Amy's safety and decide to mount a Press Conference the next day to appeal for help. Nick is joined for this by Amy's psychiatrist parents who are famous authors having once made a fortune on a series of books called Amazing Amy that ruthless exploited their daughter's childhood.

Initially there is an overwhelming abundance of sympathy and support for Nick from both the police and local community but as Detective Rhonda Boney keeps uncovering further clues that indicate that Nick may be responsible for his wife's disappearance, the mood rapidly changes.  Egged on by local TV pundits who have already declared that Nick is guilty of killing his wife, everybody turns against him.  When his young mistress goes public about their affair it seems like now that a motive has been establish, they can be no further doubt about his guilt.

Things are far from what they seem in this latest movie from the master of suspense director David Fincher who excels at complicated thrillers such as this.  By using a series of flashbacks he has shown that this once fairytale romance is now on the rocks, but even so it's impossible to comprehend the depths that Amy will go to resolve it in a manner that will try and exact such diabolical revenge on her unfaithful husband.

It is one of those movies that is best enjoyed knowing little beyond these bare bones of the plot, because what follows is so astonishing it will certainly stupefy you. Just when you think you have it all worked out, the story will twist another 360 degrees to confound you yet once again.  It is however unquestionably one of the BEST movies of 2014.

Ben Affleck is superb as put-upon Nick who you may dislike for wanting his own way, but even he doesn't deserve the punishment Amy wants to exact on him. The movie however belongs to the British actress Rosamund Pike who, in an Oscar worthy performance, is nothing less than outstanding as Amy.  It's a amazing revelation to see her being so brilliantly devious, manipulative, demented and stunningly seductive when she wants her own way. She is such a sheer joy to watch (apart from all the bloody bits naturally).

Lest I should forget, there are also some great supporting turns that deserve mention too.  Kim Dickens (TV's Sons of Anarchy) as the Detective, Carrie Coon (TV's The Leftovers) as Nick's sister Margo, Neil Patrick Harris as Amy's stalker boyfriend, and Tyler Perry for once playing it straight as a Nick's hot shot lawyer. 

The script, the first ever written by Gillian Flynn, and adapted from her own novel gave Fincher a great canvass to work with, but it is his superb attention to the most minute detail that make it such the spectacular roller-coaster ride that it is.

★★★★★★★★★★