Review of The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009) by Mike M — 26 Jan 2012

You might simply conclude Arterton was the only actress prepared to go through with it, for better or worse; your overall reaction to the film may very well depend on your ability to connect with a heroine who's a victim for half the film, a conniving manipulatrice for the other.

If we're being honest, everything and everyone gets stripped down here, anyway: there's a rare outing for the Marsan posterior, and Compston, too, will end up naked and shackled before the closing credits are out.

Blakeson is at the very least an equal opportunities exploiter, his tactics perhaps justifiable in order to put a little flesh on the mechanics of the twist machine he's constructed - but you see how he's obliged to add layers, rather than truly burrowing into the psychologies of these characters.

A "Dog Day Afternoon" without the heart or soul or anything to connect it to the outside world, it's as cold as all get out - and quite the worst thing about it is that, on its own limited terms, it just about works.