Music, Style & Culture

Safe House

The bog standard conspiracy thriller is a series of car chases, crashes and punch-ups.

Released in cinemas 24th February 2012.

From the director of hit Swedish thriller Snabba Cash comes a frantic and messy thriller that squanders its charming leading men.

Daniel Espinosa directs Denzel Washington in morally dubious Training Day-mode as rogue ex-CIA agent and fugitive Tobin Frost. When international criminal Frost is landed with some sensitive information that puts him at risk in his current South African hide-out, he hands himself over to a shocked US embassy.

Back at CIA's headquarters in the US, a team led by Vera Farmiga organise Frost's containment in the titular safe house. This puts him in the custody of one bored and frustrated young operative named Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds), who endures his South African posting with stunning scenery and an even more attractive squeeze in the form of French medical student Ana (Nora Arnezeder).

Given the title, you would be prepared for an elaborate, tense break-out scenario, maybe one using the limitations of the safe house to ingenious effect. What Espinosa and David Guggenheim's script actually delivers is a staggeringly repetitive cat 'n' mouse chase as Frost is attacked by mercenaries and goes on the run with a reluctant Weston.

The bog standard conspiracy thriller is a series of car chases, crashes and punch-ups. Repeat ad nauseam - literally, in this case, as cinematographer Oliver Wood uses the stylish car chase skills he honed on the Bourne franchise to dizzying effect (but not in a good way). The eye-bleeding boredom is only alleviated by a side-trip scuffle at a South African football match which allows Washington's Frost to display his cunning.

Among this are underwritten roles for Brendan Gleeson and Liam Cunningham; when those two powerhouses of acting deliver unmemorable performances something is very wrong. Ditto Farmiga and Arnezeder, with the latter serving little purpose. Washington does the best he possibly can with his ambiguous anti-hero Frost, but thrilling moments of outwitting captors are few and far between. Reynolds needs to pull out another fascinating indie like Buried, as he is overshadowed by Washington. His character is given barely a scrap of development, considering his circumstances.

A tiresome film that is exhausting to endure as it substitutes freneticism for tension. Only flashes of Washington's charisma make this worthwhile.

Rating: 4/10