'No Good Deed': movie review
'No Good Deed' is an example of the worst kind of exploitative thriller - and it's being released during the worst possible week.
This violent, crass, insulting movie is filled with images of domestic violence (albeit not between a married couple) just days after the world watched in horror as Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was caught on surveillance camera hitting his then-fiancee, now wife in an elevator.
The filmmakers of 'No Good Deed' - British director Sam Miller, screenwriter Aimee Lagos and low-rent distributor Screen Gems - certainly didn't intend a connection with their film long before the Rice incident. But it's still tough to separate this offensive schlock from the type of real-life situation Rice's case sadly represents.
Taraji P. Henson stars as Terry, an Atlanta attorney who's given up her career to raise her preschooler daughter and newborn son. Shortly after her husband has left town on a trip, a stranger, Colin (Idris Elba), knocks on her door on a stormy night, claiming his car broke down and that he left his cell at home - could she help?
She tries to, but of course various narrative roadblocks keep her in the house with Colin (he does, after all, fix her car's erratic alarm system, a plot device destined to come up again later). As Colin prowls about the house, scoping out family pictures and scowling menacingly, Terry's friend Meg (Leslie Bibb) comes over, an obvious sacrificial lamb to the story's slasher-flick tendencies. But then, the preschool daughter and infant baby are also used as fodder for this disgusting movie's notion of tension.
The final-act 'twist' is banal and expected, not at all a mystery considering Colin's early flashbacks to an earlier, violent encounter.
The performers, of course, deserve better. Elba - who worked with director Miller on the BBC series 'Luther' - was a terrific Nelson Mandela in last year's 'Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,' and was riveting on HBO's 'The Wire.' Here, though, Elba is required to do little beyond lurk in doorways and use his formidable size as a threat.
Henson, an Oscar nominee for 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' and a delight in the 'Think Like a Man' films, is required to open her eyes wide in fear, revulsion or shock. She has to shiver in showers and, when Colin makes her turn around undressed, plead with him that he 'doesn't have to do this.' few actresses could bring anything to a role like this; it's amazing Henson is able to connect us to Terry's inner life at all.
There's no surprise to the ultimate victim-strikes-back final-act reversal. Henson and Elba wind up standing around looking bored as murkily-filmed wind, rain and tree branches slam the windows, lightning flashes and the audience's inner gross-out alarm - this still passes for 'entertainment'? Really? - goes off repeatedly. 'No Good Deed' should be punished, with empty theaters.
ON A MOBILE DEVICE? CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE TRAILER.
Post a Comment for "'No Good Deed': movie review"