BEFORE: Capping off my Clive Owen triple-play, and giving Birthday SHOUT-out #11 tonight to Jennifer Aniston, born February 11, 1969, and last seen in "Rock Star".
THE PLOT: When two married business executives having an affair are blackmailed by a violent criminal, the two must turn the tables on him to save their families.
AFTER: This film illustrates the point I was making about "Closer" - a character's infidelity is more believable when there's some motivation for it. Here we have two people who are at least disenchanted - one has a husband who spends all his time trading stocks and golfing, and the other's marriage is affected by his daughter's health problems. They meet on the commuter train, and form a friendship that turns to attraction.
But when they finally decide to act on their impulses, that's when things take a dark turn, and they end up being blackmailed. I don't want to say any more about the plot, because I found the ending to be quite clever. Perhaps a little too tidy, but definitely clever. Another case of a screenwriter "showing off", perhaps.
My only complaint was that the story stretched the bounds of believability a bit, both in the detailing of the crimes, and the lengths that a man might go to in order to protect his (and his mistress's) reputation. And the movie did stay mostly in linear sequence, however there was one point where a character remembered in flashback things he couldn't possibly have known - OK, so I have two complaints.
Also starring Vincent Cassel (last seen in "Ocean's Thirteen"), Giancarlo Esposito (last seen in "Maximum Overdrive"), Xzibit and RZA.
RATING: 7 out of 10 composition books
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