Synopsis

Driving home one rainy night after losing an important deal, Matt Davis runs over a manstanding in the middle of a deserted country road. Repressing his initial impulse to call thepolice, Davis tries to cover up his crime. But then he finds out that not only are the police veryinterested in the victim, who might be involved with a local bank robbery, but that said victimmight also be his brother-in-law. Threatened with losing everything, Davis turns to sinisterlawyer James …pader (doing his best Christopher Walken impression). The MephistopheleanSpader fixes people’s mistakes, but then he binds the unfortunate men to him, and forces themto commit the same crimes over and over again.

There are all sorts of fascinating notions here, theological concerns of redemption and hellbeing a repetition of sins not least among them. Unfortunately, much of the dialogue is obliqueto the point of being opaque, the characters are uniformly unsympathetic, and the resolution istrite. Most damningly of all, very little is done with the terrific premise.

Audio

The 5.1 sound delivers distortion-free dialogue and excellent music. The surround effectsare good too, especially during the key scenes at the beginning and end with the rain pouringdown — said rain sounds like it’s coming down in your viewing room.

Video

The widescreen transfer has very nice colours: full, rich and warm. The contrasts and blacksare strong, the blacks are deep, the image is sharp, and there is no grain or visible edgeenhancement. So far so good. The one drawback is that the picture occasionally pulses in and outof focus.

Special Features

Nothing but the trailer. The menu, on the other hand, has fully animated and scored intro,transitions and main screen.

Closing Thoughts

Nice try, nice idea, but pedestrian execution.

Special Features List

• Trailer