Music, Style & Culture

Justice

The first half indicates this could actually be a semi-decent potboiler for Nicolas Cage.

Released in cinemas 18th November 2011.

He brought us the likes of Thirteen Days, The Bank Job and No Way Out, but director Roger Donaldson's latest is about as memorable as Dante's Peak and The Recruit.

It's only the presence of Nicolas Cage that makes this new thriller remotely intriguing, as we anticipate a potential classic Cage performance - i.e. wild-eyed, sweary and slightly demented. Alas, it's sensible, going-through-the-motions Cage on display in this twisty take on the revenge thriller.

Cage plays Will, an English teacher who lives a happy, surburban life with his cellist wife Laura (January Jones). After practice, Laura is beaten and raped on her way home one night, and left barely conscious. In the hospital waiting room, Will is approached by a mysterious man named Simon (Guy Pearce), who drops VERY LARGE HINTS about doing away with the guilty man, teasing Will with prospect of a distressing court case and minimal sentencing.

Simon suggests that he and his team could exact justice, and that the only thing they would ask in return is a vague favour one day - like a slightly more violent Pay It Forward. Hilariously, after speaking so openly about murder in a busy hospital, Simon cautiously advises Will to indicate the answer to this proposition by purchasing two chocolate bars in the hospital vending machine. The drama. This is the level of stupidity that emerges in the story.

With Laura recovering enough hang out with their buddies (Dexter's sassy Jennifer Carpenter, criminally underused, and Lost's Harold Perrineau), and the nervy, unconfident dispatching of the rapist, life is good once more. However, Will has a debt to pay, and is soon caught up in a messy web of conspiracy, exposing the vigilante group to be as sinister as the criminals they prey on.

Initially, there are some nicely handled moments of tension and intrigue, and the first half indicates this could actually be a semi-decent potboiler for Cage. Alas, the plentiful plot contrivances and daft, clumsy loop holes engulf the film, and transform it into a below-average, forgettable piece of fluff. At least the cast are appealing: Cage is a likeable, loving husband who can get down in New Orleans wearing a spangled mask, and Jones is endearing, if passive. A sharp-suited, buzz-cut Pearce does appear uncomfortably aware of the script's limitations.

Unlike Cage's Bad Lieutenant, Justice doesn't make the most of its New Orleans setting, except for making the odd allusion. A smarter film would've milked the vigilante angle for all its worth, but it turns into a bog-standard chase thriller instead. Even the original title of The Hungry Rabbit Jumps (the illogical code used by the team) had a frisson of intrigue, which was then dismissed for the anodyne 'Justice'.

Rating: 4/10