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ISSUE 4 | November 2020
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Liam Neeson in Honest Thief.
Honest Thief – 2 Stars Liam Neeson sleepwalks through this unsurprising action flick. OMEST Thief follows Tom (Liam Neeson); a notorious bank robber, well past his prime, who is colloquially known as the In and Out Thief amongst the community. As his relationship with Annie (Kate Walsh) gets more serious, he wants to go straight and lead an honest life. To that end, he turns himself into the FBI, intent on giving back the $9 million he stole, but he is double crossed by the FBI agents assigned to his case. Agent Nivens (Jai Courtney) and Agent Hall (Anthony Ramos), in an ever more desperate downward spiral of criminality, try to kill Tom and take his illicit funds for themselves, but come up against both fellow Agent Meyers (Jeffrey Donovan) and Tom’s ingenuity. Honest Thief is an almost aggressive-
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ly standard movie; a paint-by-numbers corrupt cop thriller that struggles to assert its reason for existence. That is not to say, however, that it doesn’t have its perks. Visually, a lot of the cinematography in this movie feels very professional and creatively engaging, giving it a sheen of quality that helps smooth some of the jagged edges from the performances and script. Even the disingenuous and boring scenes of Tom on the phone in a hotel room are shot in a way that it feels intriguing. On top of that, Donovan and Courtney do admirable work performing with some weak material. Courtney in particular brings a villainous streak that feels over the top and fun, and you may wind up wishing the film itself took more of that tone.
Then there are the cons. The plot is absolutely as bland and staid as possible, and you can pick it right from the off. There isn’t a single twist or turn that will shock you here, and you’ll find yourself easing into a somewhat dissatisfied and unengaged rhythm with the film. As plot beat after plot beat unfurls in line with a million other similar movies, boredom begins to set in. Coupled with the story is the dialogue, which is incredibly cheesy. With a little bit of pizazz, this could be a fun send up, full of one liners and over the top banter, but Honest Thief never truly transitions into this type of movie. That too is where we run into the biggest problem of the film; the performance from Liam Neeson.
Neeson famously proclaimed a movie in 2019 as his last action film, but here he revisits the genre, and his tiredness with it is on full display. He mumbles, fumbles and sleepwalks his way through this material. Certainly, Neeson is a natural with this sort of content, so even sleepwalking there is a certain thrill to his work. However, this material needs an enthusiastic touch, to elevate it from bland unbelievability to engaging B-movie cheers, and Neeson seems like he mandated a one take rule – everything he does feels like he doesn’t want to be there. This is a standard movie with little enthusiasm from the creatives behind it. It is easy to watch,and washes over you with a distinct sense of unsatisfying familiarity. Honestly, a disappointment.
Radioactive – 3 Stars Rosamund Pike plays the famed Marie Curie in this biopic about the discovery of radioactivity. ARIE Curie (nee Sklowoska) (Rosamund Pike), travels to Paris to pursue science at the Sorbonne from her home in Poland. Frosty, prickly and obsessed with her independence and her science, she doesn’t win any favours from the male dominated heads of the Sorbonne, and winds up without a lab. Pierre Curie (Sam Riley) takes a shining to Marie, and offers her space in his lab. Together, they investigate a radical idea of Marie’s: that unstable uranium particles emit ‘rays’ of energy independently, that can transform and release unbelievable power. As their romance grows, so too does their scientific acclaim, and they are lauded for their discovery of new elements. Yet things start to unravel as the negative impacts of radioactivity are revealed – both close to home for Marie and her family and echoing throughout time in some of the most historic moments in modern history. Radioactive will give you whiplash with its rapid creative tonal changes, and flash forwards to the historically seismic impacts of Marie and Pierre Curie’s groundbreaking early 20th century research. Director Marjane Satrapi, in the most mainstream of her five features to date, struggles to settle on a single tone, and as such Radioactive cuts from historically accurate period imagery to oddly animated uranium chunks, from seyances to brutal horse tramplings. That’s before even considering the odd interludes with the historical ripples from the discovery of radium. The film cuts from early 20th century Paris to Hiroshima and the dropping of the bomb, to Chernobyl, to the nuclear tests in deserted stretches of mainland USA and to the first uses of radioactivity to cure cancer. These tonal shifts are also compounded by the fact that when Satrapi cuts to later points in time, we are watching worse reenactments of these moments than seen previously in recent pop culture – the incredible tv show Chernobyl being a perfect example. That being said, despite the weird and eclectic tone, there is a lot to like here. From a cinematography per-
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Rosamund Pike in Radioactive.
spective, there are flashes of brilliance, and Director of Photography Anthony Dod Mantle plays well with the Paris landscape and the ominous green glow of radium. Rosamund Pike gives a brave and pioneering scientific mind in a patriarchal system full form with a compelling performance, and when coupled with the truly intriguing real life story of this scientific breakthrough, Radioactive still comes off as an interesting period piece. Sam Riley is a strong supporting presence, and Satrapi balances the competing condemnation of the system and
prevailing attitudes of the time with a genuinely enjoyable romance plot. Radioactive is a strange, hard to pin down film, but the incredible true story of this historical pioneer and the performance from Rosamund Pike make this a worthy time at the cinema. Reviews by Jacob Richardson Creative Director | Film Focus www.filmfocusau.com
