A man seeking revenge for the murders of his wife and child is coerced by blackmail to assist a woman seeking her own revenge against another who damaged her in a car accident. This set up would have delighted Alfred Hitchcock who might have filmed just such a plot in the 1950s in his distinctively sophisticated style using perhaps Cary Grant as the hero and a tastefully disfigured Grace Kelly as the heroine. The dialogue would have been witty and expletive free and any violence would have been hinted at but not seen.
But this is the 21st Century and high technology, sprinkled with bursts of crime with grime and gore are de rigueur. That is how this Hitchcockian setup is handled in 'Dead Man Down'.
I had no foreknowledge of this film and wasn't very hopeful whilst viewing its opening ten minutes or so but when the plot finally emerged I was pleasantly surprised to discover quite an interesting, if occasionally fanciful, action story.
On the surface this is just another modern blood and guts noisy mess but in the quiet moments that intervene lies a story sound enough to attract performers of the standing of F Murray Abraham, Isabelle Huppert, Terrence Howard and Armand Assante, as well as current 'names', Colin Farrell, Noomi Rapace and Dominic Cooper.
★★★1/2
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