Review by Don Hill The President of the United Stats is shot down while attending a summit of world leaders in Each “act” of the film is told from the “vantage point” of one of the characters in the event and the clues and action unfold slowly and methodically over the next 90 minutes. Each different point of view tells a slightly different version of the truth, with each re-telling adding new details that we didn’t know before, as we filter through the various stories down to the truth of what actually happened. The story comes across to me as modern hard-boiled; the tale of a crime and the chase to catch the perpetrators by a newly re-deployed agent. The cast is an ensemble of talent pulled from he central character is Thomas Barnes (Quaid), a longtime Secret Service agent who is just now returning to protective detail after having been shot in the line of duty. This story arc becomes important when the President is gunned down on his watch, making him relive the moments that happened just a few months ago and to overcome them as he tries to catch the assassins. The story unfolds at a good pace. Action happens as it needs and the investigators put together pieces of the puzzle as they try to solve the crime. The pacing of the film is very well done, never slowing or rushing headlong too quickly. There is one chase scene that was a bit much, pulled straight from the Jason Bourne school of action film, but even it did not detract from the mystery genre styling of the movie. I enjoyed the film quite a bit. It was just intelligent enough to avoid the description of “action schlock” and although it bordered on gimmicky during the “fast-rewind” between each segment of the story, the movie does the job it intended, a smart action mystery for a new generation. First-time director Pete Travis has only done TV before and if he keeps to intelligent films like this he could leave that world behind for this new frontier. A solid 3 / 5 Stars
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