By PETER CALDER
(Herald rating: * * )
A blood-soaked revenge drama with ideas way above its station, this film is half thriller, half gorefest, but never the character piece it fancies itself as.
Directed by Tony Scott, brother of the more famous Ridley, and scripted by Brian Helgeland - who wrote, among
other things, Mystic River and LA Confidential - it's not short on star power, but when it's supposed to fire it does little more than burst into flame.
Washington is John Creasy, a one-time mercenary with a shady past who is barely winning a battle with the bottle when he lands a gig in Mexico City, guarding the daughter (Fanning) of a rich industrialist.
That there is more to the job than meets the eye is something the film saves for a final twist. But the first half, in which Pita, his new charge, charms the morose and prickly Creasy, is an irritating blend of nauseating cuteness curdled with tension ratcheted up about four notches too far.
Scott, who is scarcely noted for his restraint, deploys cinematic tricks with a vigour that suggests he is being paid by the special effect: jump-cuts, high-speed (or slo-mo) montages, sudden changes in lighting, focus and film stock are so dazzling that by the time the unthinkable happens to Pita and the film morphs into the mother of all hunts, we need a rest.
Fat chance. They're just getting started.
Creasy is "an artist of death", says an old mate played by Walken, "and he's about to paint his masterpiece".
At nearly 2 1/2 hours, it is unconscionably long and there's also something distinctly distasteful about the limitless brutality of Creasy's vengeance, given the crimes he is avenging.
We are presumably asked to overlook it because he is avenging a child's death, but whatever the film's pretensions, it's really for people who like to see bad buys blown up. Or shot. Or having their fingers amputated and the stumps cauterised with cigarette lighters. Or ...
CAST: Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, Marc Anthony, Radha Mitchell, Christopher Walken, Giancarlo Giannini, Rachel Ticotin
DIRECTOR: Tony Scott
RUNNING TIME: 147 mins
RATING: R16 (violence and content that may disturb)
