Freeze Frame

Despite its fancily edited, techno-hip look this conspiracy thriller works more like an old-fashioned Agatha Christie murder mystery with its roster of closely-related, compromised characters and carefully placed red herrings than as a convincing exercise in conceptual duplicity.

Written and directed by John Simpson, for all its far-fetchedness (one cannot help but wonder how does the apparently very ordinary central character finance his solipstic lifestyle), this is, neverthless, quite enjoyable. I was not entirely convinced by the casting of English Jerry Lewis-like comedian Lee Evans in the central role. For a start one is too aware that it is Evans playing the role and secondly with his simian features and rubbery body movements he's intrinsically too comical to fit well with the sombre mood of the film. Having said that, he does a pretty good job and we certainly do sympathize with his tortured character, a man who ten years ago was accused of a grisly triple murder and now lives in fear of being accused of other crimes and so obsessively documents his every move.

Overall the acting is ham-fisted, the roster of evil characters quite generic and Simpson's direction occasionally too contrived, the ending being the prime instance of this (and worryingly early in the piece "principal" is mis-spelled in some screen text) but the plot is well-enough constructed and the pacing is tight enough to permit us to overlook that and, as with Ms Christie, just hang in there to find out whodunit.

 

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