Running time: 117 minutes
Starring: Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Stellan Skarsgard, Natascha McElhone
Rating 7 out of 10
Following a clandestine rendezvous in a small Parisian cafe, five strangers are briefed on their mysterious assignment. There's this metal briefcase. Big men in dark shades protect it, Deirdre's (Natascha McElhone) Irish superiors want it, and 20K apiece says they'll do whatever it takes to swipe it. They being Eastern Bloc techno-boffin Gregor (Stellan Skarsgard), English weaponry expert Spence (Sean Bean), wheels man Larry (Skipp Sudduth) from America, French fixer Vincent (Jean Reno) and Sam (Robert De Niro) - another American - qualifications largely unknown. None have met before and suspicions run high as the characters, and the audience, wonder who, if anyone, to trust. This is an action thriller stripped down to the bare essentials and running on fully leaded fuel.
Veteran director John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate) captures the feel of old-style movie-making with a delicious sense of ambiguity around the characters and glamorous locations in Paris and Nice steeped with gloomy foreboding.
Throw in some superb performances - De Niro and Reno inevitably the pick - and a couple of car chases delivered with only the whine of straining engines, and this shrouded, intriguing affair offers a stark alternative in the current climate of big thrills and slam-bam storytelling.
