Ivo Beitsma

Nice idea for a film, but B-level execution. While the action contained a few gems, it didn't compensate for a tired plot, unconvincing acting and directing that, increasingly toward the end, seemed little more than an unedited first take. Can we see the finished version please? Will Smith's name and an enticing premise lured me in; Mary Winstead's talent and the hope the film would improve kept me around. Definitely don't pay to watch this one. Pick Deadpool or an old 007 instead.

Barely redeemed by outstanding actors and haunting blues, a story containing twistedly mixed messages leaves us no wiser about its central theme: sexual assault. Scenes of sexuality and restraint promise to develop to a conclusion with some merit, but it doesn't deliver. Instead, we have a woman whose fantastical nymphomaniacal illness strongly implies that she deserves her multiple rape experiences, with the bonus twist that in the end she will be saved — and apparently cured — by a sexually restrained father figure, some gratuitous biblical morality, and marriage. Oh, and being chained non consensually in her panties after being raped and beaten. Don't be fooled by this film's apparent complexity. It's immature and irresponsible. What you're feeling is either the familiar betrayal or validation of the same old pecking order, with men and Bibles claiming the high ground and all the chips falling where they may. Ricci and Jackson are utterly believable and the tension is sexy, and I applaud that we get to experience a black hero facing a predicament which has authentic racial elements. This could have been a a small win for diversity in Hollywood. But each of those pros is defeated, ironically, by cons in its same category. This would have been much better as a gratuitously sexy psychological thriller with similar story line and the same actors, but leaving the audience to make up its own mind about right and wrong.