Dead Man Down

Finding a dead body in a freezer has crime boss Terrence Howard feeling even more uptight than usual. Somebody, somewhere, is stalking him, and loyal cohort Colin Farrell is among the team assigned to track down the miscreant. Farrell – he of the furrowed brow – has other issues to contend with, however, including troubled neighbour Noomi Rapace as a scarred beautician with her own vengeful agenda. So begins a way-too-leisurely thriller whose destination is fairly obvious from early on, but to which the talented cast apply themselves with effortful seriousness. We appreciate how they give the characters a semblance of dimensionality, yet the script is wilful to a fault, and Danish director Niels Arden Oplev (like Rapace, a veteran of the original ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’) overdoes the portentous suggestiveness while keeping us waiting for genuine excitement. Two hours of fractious, would-be arty idling is more than enough, so thank goodness for French actress Isabelle Huppert, delightfully dotty as Rapace’s cookie-baking maman. In all her long and distinguished career has she ever previously uttered the word ‘tupperware’?