Dead Man Down is Niels Arden Oplev‘s first shot at directing a Hollywood movie. He’s best known for his work in the original ‘The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo’. It’s not surprising then, when Noomi Rapace, who played Lisbeth Salander in the trilogy turns up as the female lead here. In Dead Man Down, she plays Beatrice, a scarred car crash survivor, who lives in the apartment block opposite Victor (Colin Farrell).
Victor is part of a gang, a modern day mob and along with Darcy (Dominic Cooper) goes investigating into who or why a gang member ended up in the boss’ Alphonse’s freezer. Beatrice sees something she shouldn’t have through Victor’s window and it all kicks off.
From the trailers released for this film, you get the impression that it’s a more high speed ‘Blow em up’ movie, but there was a lot more depth to it than that. It’s a spiraling maze of planning, plotting and revenge which brings out the best in Colin Farrell’s acting skills as he reveals the depth of his character, Victor. This isn’t Die Hard, even if Noomi Rapace’s character ‘Beatrice’, is at times, a tad too much of whinging damsel in distress.
Overall, it’s an enjoyable two hours which keeps the viewer engaged, decent story, well shot and a great car chase. Standout was Colin Farrell, it’s a long way from Ballykissangel, but he really deserves to be getting the roles Brad Pitt and George Clooney just saunter into, immense talent.