Movie Review: Deadfall

Directed by: Stefan Ruzowitzky

Starring: Eric Bana, Charlie Hunnam, Olivia Wilde, and Kate Mara

Plot: 2 siblings who just robbed a casino cross paths with a boxer who just got out of prison.

Review:

Addison (Eric Bana) and Liza (Olivia Wilde) are Southern siblings who just robbed a casino. While making their getaway to Canada, they crash on the icy roads. They decide to split up. Liza ends up running into Jay (Charlie Hunnam). Jay is a former boxer sent to prison for fixing a fight. He got out on good behavior and is currently on his way to his parents’ house in time for Thanksgiving dinner.

With Addison and Liza splitting up, you end up with two different plots waiting to crash into each other. Liza and Jay end up stuck in a bar when snow conditions close the roads. Their story is essentially a character drama. Wilde is really fun as Liza. She starts off conning Jay with a real femme fatale shtick.  She transforms into her true self slowly but surely. Learning to trust Jay is not turned on a dime. It is surprisingly earned. Hunnam still needs a lot of work in the subtle department, but he tends to have great chemistry with just about anyone he shares the screen with. He also taps into some very primal ferocity in the movie’s climax.

Meanwhile, the cops are tracking Addison who is leaving a really sloppy trail of blood and bodies. There is a moment when I thought he was just trying to throw them off Liza’s scent, but he clearly is a psychopath. In fact, the more the movie goes on, the crazier Bana becomes. Unfortunately, not in a good way. He kind of hams it up, and with Matthew McConaughey knocking a similar performance out of the park in Killer Joe, Bana just doesn’t hold a candle. Addison’s story also has all these awful cop extras. All of them are alpha male douchebags who give the one female on the force a lot of crap throughout the movie. That female is played by Kate Mara. She is in over her head and doesn’t really earn the not-to-be-underestimated hero she is portrayed as. She is on the force to live up to her father’s expectations. He is the head of the police and played by Treat Williams. He is the worst of the alpha male douchebags with a side of protective father. Their conversations are always antagonistic and really cringe inducing. The dialog is just so poor in their scenes that no amount of emoting could possibly help.

As the stories come to ahead, the movie becomes much better. All the stories and characters collide in a very tense and creepy scene. I do not want to spoil it any further than that, but like Eric Bana’s performance, this movie might have fared better if it didn’t come out the same year as the superior Killer Joe.

Rating: 5/10