Director: Adam Cooper
Starring: Russell Crowe, Karen Gillan, Marton Csokas
Running Time: 112 minutes
Synopsis: Roy Freeman (Russel Crowe) is a retired cop undergoing experimental treatment for dementia. He is summoned by a death row inmate who claims to have been wrongly convicted for the murder of university professor Dr. Joseph Wieder (Marton Csokas) ten years prior. Despite his frail mental health Roy starts to investigate, catching up with his ex-partner Remis (Tommy Flanagan) and re-examining the case evidence, leading to recently deceased author Richard Finn (Harry Greenwood). His unpublished memoir chronicles a romance with ambitious graduate student Laura Baines (Karen Gillan), who was helping Wieder with his research. Freeman's doggedness to uncover the truth ruffles feathers, with unexpected consequences.
What Works Well: A modern film noir, complete with a femme fatale, naked ambition, murder most foul, multiple overlapping motives, infidelity, the whiff of crooked cops, events from long ago haunting the present, and memory loss fueling doomed quests. Director and co-writer Adam Cooper keeps the plot purring with a steady drip of new revelations, and Russell Crowe wears the exhausted and mentally spent cop with the ease of a classic trench coat.
What Does Not Work As Well: The perspective shifts a couple of times, with a long flashback to the Richard Finn/Laura Baines relationship dislodging Roy from the film's centre. The main twist is not difficult to spot, and once the plot discloses all its secrets, it also loses logical coherence.
Key Quote:
Laura: Must be one of the benefits of your condition. Can't remember the bad times.
Roy: Can't remember the good times either.
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