Review of Dead Man Down (2013) by Wil R — 15 Mar 2013

Despite the VERY high aspirations I set out for this film, I fell into the pool of general acceptability for this film that nearly everyone else did. For every proper establishment of the atmosphere and unique shot expressing the film's great sense of direction, there was a major setback somewhere in the script whether it was a character unnaturally breaking from his or her role, a large hole in the plot, or a general lack of inspiration behind the man who penned this messy affair.

It was undoubtedly a very large mistake of Oplev's to allow an amateur writer with no official film experience to pen his debuting American film. Nevertheless, Oplev's unique style and sense of direction matched with a lineage of top-notch, wholly invested actors pulls a spin-off on the suspense/thriller genre that I never saw coming so early on in the year.

And, of course, Oplev's presence in general and the reunification of him with the beloved Noomi Rapace certainly serves as an up despite the roughly-layered, cluttered script she is set to follow.

The story isn't quite as horrid as everyone makes it out to be as it carried well throughout the film although it did so without any truly unseen twists or originality. The level of suspense behind the dark tone of the film overall and the acting itself really brought about a feeling of tension that held well throughout the film and helped carry the viewer through a rather deliberately-paced first two acts.

Needless to say, the level of entertainment brought about by the film's sparsely-spaced action sequences, including the ending scene especially, certain made the viewing of this one worthwhile, even if much of it fell apart when considering it in retrospect.

My last comment simply must be made out to the ending, though, as the screen cuts to black with no sense of reassuring closure or conclusion and a rushed resolution that ultimately fails to satisfy as though some rushing urgency to end the film then and there had settled upon the crew.

The last minute or so of the film really lets down everything that leads up to it, thereby marking a detail that EASILY could've been tweaked or given a few minutes further of thought. In summary, where Dead Man Down sets itself backwards as far as pacing and scripting, it excels in entertainment value, stylistic camera work/visual effects, and top-level acting, making Dead Man Down certainly worth a view, but also certainly not to be taken too seriously or contended on an admirable level in comparison of similar entries in this genre.