An engaging thriller that requires more than a little suspension of disbelief.
So much of the success of this film comes from our two stars (Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren). These two give nearly perfect performances playing characters that in lesser actors' hands would have not worked at all. Ian McKellon plays a fantastic conman. He is perfectly charming when he needs to be but completely ruthless at other times. You can fully see why so many have fallen for his fake charm, yet at the same time when we see the real him, he is as dark and sinister as can be (honestly I was kind of surprised by just how dark this character can be at times). Helen Mirren is equally fantastic in her role, playing perfectly off of her costar. The basic storyline of this film is a good one (if not an original one), and it is very well told, especially when it comes to some very well written dialogue and engaging characters. This is also a very visually engaging movie, and though the film can be quite dialogue heavily the look of the film always enhances the story very well. This is especially true of Tobias A. Schliessler's excellent cinematography. Carter Burwell's musical score is also quite good.
The biggest fault of this film is the biggest fault of many thrillers. The twists and turns require too many coincidences that have to work out absolutely perfectly for these twists to make sense. The more you think about these twists the less believable they become and one wonders how the characters possibly planned for each of these coincidences to work out exactly as they did. This becomes much truer as the movie goes on. However this fault is still won over by how good what works in this movie is.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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