Seeking Justice

Working Class Hero?

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Rated: R  Brief sexuality, violence and language
Release Date: March 16, 2012
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins

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Director:  Roger Donaldson

Writers: Todd Hickey, Robert Tannen
Cast:  Nicolas Cage, January Jones, Guy Pearce, Jennifer Carpenter, IronE Singleton, Harold Perrineau, Xander Berkeley

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SYNOPSIS: When his wife is sexually assaulted, school teacher Will Gerard accepts the offer from a vigilante group to avenge her. What he doesn't realize is that the 'favor' they ask him to carry out afterward is more than what he bargained for.

REVIEW: Roger Donaldson, directors of such intrigue films as The Recruit and The Bank Job, takes a story and script from first time writer and longtime cinematographer Todd Hickey and relative new screenwriter Robert Tannen. Starring Nicolas Cage, one of the hardest working actors in show business, will Seeking Justice find the justice it seeks?

High school teacher and chess enthusiast Will Gerard (Nicolas Cage, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance)   enjoys the New Orleans scene with his musician wife Laura (January Jones, X-Men: First Class) and his friends and co-workers. One night, when Laura is sexually assaulted and put into the hospital, Will is approached by a mysterious man named Simon (Guy Pearce, The King's Speech) who ensures Will that his organization can and will silence the assailant for good if Will agrees to help the organization in the near future when they ask for his assistance. Unable to watch his wife suffer in pain, Will agrees and the deed is carried out. A few months later, when Will is asked by Simon to carry a letter to a mail box in front of the zoo, the favor is upped to following a mother and two daughters, then ramped up to the request to carry out an assassination of an accused pedophile. When Will refuses, he and his wife are put into danger by the same organization that aided them in the first place. Running out of time, Will must try to expose the organization before it destroys him. 

Nicolas Cage has recently tarnished his acting star with a string of less than stellar films including Season of the Witch and The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Even with genre anticipated films like the Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance sequel and a comic book favorite film of mine, Kick-Ass, some look at Cage's current career path as on the decline. He has certainly come a long way down from Adaptation and Leaving Las Vegas, or even the National Treasure franchise. With Seeking Justice, Cage does pump the brakes a little by putting out a decent product.

Nicolas Cage tempers the caricature of himself that even SNL's Andy Samberg has perfected on the segment 'Inside the Cage, with Nicolas Cage'. When Cage is not mugging or staring wide-eyed, his character actually comes down to earth enough to be believable and distraught. January Jones channels sympathy instead of her signature distain from Mad Men as she recovers from her physical and psychological trauma. Guy Pearce beefs up a little, probably in preparation of the upcoming space prison sci-fi flick Lockout, and cuts an imposing and dangerous figure as the vigilante group figure head  Simon. Harold Perrineau (Lost) as Will's principal boss and friend, and Jennifer Carpenter (Gone) as Laura's musician friend Trudy keep to the background until the story plots require them to step forward. Some of the 'organization's' henchmen like Scar (IronE Singleton, The Walking Dead) have larger roles than some of the bigger name actors and actresses. 


Seeking Justice is the type of film that is reminiscent of 1990s films like Johnny Depp's Nick of Time where a seemingly unprepared and unlikely middle-class man is forced to go beyond his comfort zone against an established organization that has unlimited resources, a powerful reach into law enforcement, and expertise in misdirection, mayhem and violence. In this case, the protagonist dies not take retribution into his own hands to avenge his wife's assailant, but is forced to take action nonetheless when his decisions to have someone else kill for him comes back to haunt him. 

By no means is Seeking Justice Cage's best work, but it is a solid action drama thriller whose script has been brought to full life by the expert hands of its director Roger Donaldson, and by the work of the film's protagonists in Cage and January Jones, and its antagonist Guy Pearce. If you can't get into Jonah Hill's 21 Jump Street, you can always fall back onto Seeking Justice as a second choice if you really need a couple chases or guns pointed in your face.

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WORTH: Matinee or Rental

Gone

Going, Going...

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Rated: PG-13 Drug references, brief language, some sexual material, and violence and terror.
Release Date: February 24, 2012
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins

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Director:  Heitor Dhalia

Writers: Allison Burnett
Cast:  Amanda Seyfried, Daniel Sunjata, Jennifer Carpenter, Sebastian Stan, Wes Bentley

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SYNOPSIS:  When her sister suddenly disappears, Jill believes that the same man who abducted her and she escaped from has returned to finish the job. When the local police think that Jill is delusional, she takes matters into her own hands.

REVIEW: Adrift director Heitor Dhalia takes a stab at the suspense game with a script from Underworld: Awakening and Untraceable screenwriter Allison Burnett. Recently working with a team of fellow writers. Burnett goes out on his own with this dramatic thriller.

In Portland, Oregon, young Jill (Amanda Seyfried, In Time) goes about her seemingly normal life with her midnight shift work as a waitress, living with her sister, classes in self-defense, and gridded searches on forest hikes. When her sister Molly (Emily Wickersham, I Am Number Four) disappears on the eve of a big exam, Jill is convinced that she has been abducted. Having escaped from a pit in the forest when abducted by a serial killer two years ago, Jill believes that Molly has been taken by the same man. Going to the police, Jill outlines to Detective Powers (Daniel Sunjata, One for the Money) what she knows and what she believes. From other detectives like Erica Lonsdale (Katherine Moennig, The Lincoln Lawyer) to Lt. Ray Bozeman (Michael Pare, The Lincoln Lawyer), no one takes Jill seriously enough to start scouring the city for her sister. Only newly returned detective Peter Hood (Wes Bentley, Jonah Hex) shows any belief that Jill may be right. Jill goes on a mission to find her sister, gun in her handbag, checking all leads in spite of the idle police department. Every step puts her closer to finding her sister and the serial killer who has haunted her for two years.

Allison Burnett's script and Heitor Dhalia's direction bring to the screen a modern-day noir-styled thriller. Seyfried's Jill is the tortured young woman searching for answers. The film is filled with characters that all could very well be the killer that Jill has been looking for. Is it the diner patron regular who is suddenly moving away because he 'doesn't like the woman in Portland'? Or is it Molly's boyfriend Billy (Sebastian Stan, Captain America: The First Avenger) who doesn't seem worried enough? Or is it the new cop Hood who seems too interested in Jill's case? The script tosses out classic red herrings seemingly by the dozens, trying to keep the audience guessing and in suspense. Most end up being obvious and more of a distraction than useful. Dhalia shoots many of the cast of characters with sharp camera angles and intense shadows to up-play just how sinister everyone in Portland seems to be.

With so many characters onscreen like co-worker Sharon (Jennifer Carpenter, Quarantine), the twitchy boyfriend of Molly's, and a bunch of cops that quickly dismiss Jill's claims for her missing sister because no real proof was discovered during her own abduction, the story flounders with the crowded cast excess with not much to do other than provide distraction for the plot - like a shiny quarter or a length of dangling yarn.

Though stuck in a story that should have by-passed the silver screen, Amanda Seyfried has enough talent and screen presence to carry Gone as far as she could. With wide-eyed terror and grim determination, Seyfried's Jill kept me interested throughout. It was only when Jill dialogues with the other characters that the story grinds down considerably. When Seyfried is on the hunt for her sister and the serial killer is when the pace and suspense keep to a fine clip.

Gone is an adequate suspenseful thriller, centering around a young, tortured, haunted girl who seeks vengeance against a serial killer, both for the abduction of her sister Molly and her own kidnapping that would have resulted in her own murder if she had not had the chance at escape. It is too bad that the attempt at misdirection with a motley cast of characters does nothing to enhance the story. Buy a ticket for this film if you must, but do so soon because its run in the theater will soon be gone.

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WORTH: Rental