Thorsten-Krings
I'm not really sure what to make of this film. The first 45 or 50 minutes are fairly unsatisfying. With good story telling you become part of the story; here I found myself watching from the outside. I found it difficult to feel empathy for anyone. No character was really particularly interesting or likable. Then there was such too much of everything happening too fast: too many murders, too many sex scenes etc. Keeley Hawes' sex scenes are very, very erotic but I can't help wondering why they are in the film. After about 50 minutes, the suspense starts kicking in and the film becomes quite interesting and well paced. Unfortunately, you also can be pretty sure who the killer really is. Suspenseful as the second half of the film may be, it's also a rather banal storyline. Ex-soldier starts killing bad people taking revenge for everything that has happened in his life or in his world. The killings are gruesome but then again it's nothing we have not seen before. One victim is displayed in a butcher's window: I saw that in an EC comic from the early 50s. The moral question at the end of the day is then how justified these murders are and that the law can never catch the real culprits. That is hardly an original thought or motive in crime films.
brandonsites1981
Vile, violent, but intelligent thriller about a writer for an expose newspaper shocked to discover that everybody he was going to ruin in the press is turning up dead and all the clues point to him as the killer.The premise may not sound like much, but just give this film a chance and watch it. You'll be surprised. It goes in directions that you would never expect, yet they are all credible. It also doesn't go for the easy answers in trying to wrap up it's little mystery. As good as the whole film was I never expected them to create a good ending for it, but yet again the script surprised me there too. A very good film.Rated R; Graphic Violence, Profanity, Drug Use, Adult Themes, Sexuality.
Yaniv Eidelstein
sometimes, a film can suffer greatly from just one drawback, even if everything else is top notch. unfortunately, this is the case here.this film, based on iain banks' novel, is an impressive production, with excellent actors, breathtaking scottish settings, believable and very enjoyable character quirks, truly shocking murders, suspense and even some steamy sex.however, "complicity" doesn't quite succeed, and i can only trace it back to one thing: it's much too compressed. i haven't read the original novel, but it's obvious a great deal of it made it to the screen; unfortunately, the film's 93 minute running time just doesn't suffice for this epic tale: cameron colley's journalistic investigation into several seemingly unrelated murders, egged on by a mysterious anonymous source, which causes him to clash with his disapproving bosses; his relationships with his old friends, and the many secrets they share; his affair with yvonne; the various grisly murders as seen by the killer; flashbacks to cameron's childhood and teenage years; and the psychologically jarring moments after cameron becomes the police's prime suspect.of course, this film offers many funny, thrilling, surprising and shocking moments, but they're all a bit rushed. a longer format would have benefitted this film greatly. banks' exceedingly clever and profound story manages to come over very well, but the film is so densely packed that i'd recommend you take small breaks so as to take everything in; make a cup of coffee or something and come back, as you would to a good novel (of course you could go straight to the source, but me, i'd rather watch the movie.)the fabulous bbc production of banks' "the crow road" shows the extent to which a longer format is more suitable to his multifaceted stories.
illitrate
i'm a big fan of the book - not necessarily Iain Bank's best, but definitely top 5. this film manages to keep all of the important parts of the story, cramming it into 100 minutes without giving the ending away until... well the end. very enjoyable, more so because i'd read the book, but couldn't remember the ending till i saw it. well acted by a stunning cast and the script kept what i'd call the Banks'iness of the book. well worth watching, whether you've read the book or not. the only downside is that the dvd could do with more extras.