Dead Man Down

Danish director Niels Arden Oplev’s first offering since The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is ambitious. Starring Colin Farrell as a reticent mob member with an ulterior motive and Noomi Rapace as his disfigured neighbour seeking a revenge of her own, Dead Man Down takes itself rather seriously.

There’s an evocative New York landscape, brilliantly employed when the two leads converse across their balconies – yet put to nonsensical use as Farrell holds a mobster captive in a decaying shipwreck. There are double-crosses in dark warehouses, shoot-outs set to reggae music and frantic scheming in claustrophobic rooms covered in newspaper clippings.
With supporting actors Terrence Howard, Dominic Cooper, Luis Da Silva Jr., and Isabelle Huppert competing for screen-time, there’s an abundance of talent. Ultimately, however, the characters lack depth.
Farrell and Rapace are solid, bringing a tortured energy to the story. However, the movie’s obvious debt to Rear Window and Strangers On A Train, merely underlines the lack of Hitchcockian subtlety or tension. It’s far too complicated as well – less “edge of your seat” than “scratch your head”.