Film Reviews

Justice

• Rating:
• Director: Roger Donaldson
• Starring: January Jones
• Details: US/104mins 15A

Let's just be honest; Nicolas Cage needs the money and just can't afford to wait around for good scripts anymore. Occasionally we might get an accidental minor masterpiece like Kick Ass or Bad Lieutenant, but for the most part it will be utter drivel like this - or the recent Nicole Kidman co-starring abomination, Trespass. In fairness, there was hope with this one; Roger Donaldson is fine director and Guy Pearce is always watchable. But both do pedestrian work (at best) in this lame procedural drama.
Cage is high school teacher, Will Gerard. When his wife (a typically stoic January Jones) is brutally attacked and raped, Will is approached by Pearce's vigilante in the hospital. He promises him swift, violent justice if he agrees to a "favour" for his "organisation" down the line. An emotional Will agrees, and his wife's assailant is dutifully clipped; but six months later he regrets the conversation when Pearce's mysterious stranger turns up again and asks for that favour...
Predictable from the opening frames - in the same way that your average episode of Law and Order is - Justice plods along at a frustratingly slow pace and never moves out of second gear. The conspiracy is obvious, the hoped for tension nonexistent and the whole thing stinks of a general banality that has become a theme in the latter career of Cage. Admittedly, the only real blame here that can be aimed at him is his still weighty name probably helped it get financing - and possibly attracted the still credible Pearce. The early conversations between Pearce and Cage should be edgy and foreboding, but lack menace.
A poorly written and executed pseudo-thriller, it's actually surprising when you look at the previous work of Donaldson. He managed to wring an almost nonsensical amount of arse-clenching tension out of film we already knew the outcome of (Thirteen Days), and even succeeded where Guy Ritchie failed and pulled off a dramatic production with Jason Statham as the star (Bank Job).
If you stumble across this on TV one rainy evening it might be worth passing the time. What it's not worth is the price of a cinema ticket.

Review by Mike Sheridan