Review of The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009) by Graham W — 17 Oct 2010

How many actors does it take to produce an interesting film? For "glimpse of a moment" type of movie, only three, as proven by The Disappearance of Alice Creed. In this minimalistic movie, we were shown two men shopping for necessities for a grand kidnap plan that will earn them two million pounds: their set-up, the room, the abandoned warehouse, the van, and with expressionless face and a firm "OK", the first uttered word of the film, they seized Alice Creed from the street. From then on, the story unfolded in only one claustrophobic location: the house, in which most sequence took place in the room the girl was kept in, the living area where the two men interacted, and a toilet, the only other private space for whoever entered it.

It was meant to be a mystery film and that's all you should entitle yourself to know; pretend you are Alice Creed, what would you do; or perhaps you are Danny, or Vic, what would you do next?

There is a heavy demand placed on the script and I have to say the script, as minimalistic as it had to be, was superbly done and executed, as if it was done in a way intended to be used as a reference/textbook prototype. It was a surrealistically realistic set-up for the tension between the three characters to brew. And the three actors did not shy away from putting up superbly realistic/flawless acting.

The ending sequence could not meet the standard set by the amazing opening sequence and was perhaps one unfortunate set-back of the movie. I wonder whether there were different versions of it hid under the director's sleeves. There was indeed two million pounds in the end, and it was a huge sum of money to share...