Michael Ledo A woman goes to the reading of a will of a man she doesn't know. He will leave her 5 million pounds if she kills a man. Her daughter has cancer and they want the money to send her to America for treatments. They are faced with a moral dilemma.Meanwhile there are things happening in the subplot to make you realize she is not the only one with this offer. More interested to solve the mystery than get the money, Sally Wilson (Ashley Jensen) begins her own investigation.Parental Guide: F-bomb, no sex, no nudity.

morpheusatloppers In 1970, Richard Matheson wrote a short story called "Button, Button" (after the kids game - Button, Button - Who's Got The Button?) The plot involved a dilemma - would you kill a stranger for a large amount of money.A woman is given a box containing a button - all she has to do is press it...In 1986, the story was used as an episode of the revival of "The Twilight Zone".In 2009, it was expanded to movie length, for a Cameron Diaz vehicle called "The Box".Two years later, the idea resurfaced in "The Reckoning". This time, the woman was Ricky Gervais' little Scottish chum in "Extras".The problem with all this is that the original source material was a SHORT STORY. And within those confines, it works fine.But by trying to develop it to movie length, the idea becomes submerged.And in "The Reckoning" it DROWNS. The improbabilities and illogicality of the development kill the spark of the original concept stone dead.One to avoid.

davideo-2 STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning Sally (Ashley Jensen) has been called to a London solicitor's office to find out how much she has been left in a will...only to find it's conditional on her cold bloodedly murdering a complete stranger, who allegedly deserves to die. Her ex policeman husband (Max Beesley) does some research, and finds this holds true. But, even with her severely ill daughter to think about, can she find it within her to go ahead with her task? And, even if she does, is she just unknowingly acting as one part of a bigger, more sinister picture? ITV have a fine drama production team that can churn this kind of thing out on a more modest budget at any time. Lead star Jensen I recognised pretty much straight away as Ricky Gervais's chum in Extras, and in the supporting role we have Beesley, most well known at the moment from the Jobsite adverts, and between them they carry this off without any complaints.Despite feeling a bit far fetched and pretty implausible at times, this is still an intriguing thriller, running at a sprucely ninety minutes rather than the two parter it's been billed as, that genuinely keeps you hooked until the end, which is bizarre but surprising. Yes, there does seem to be an ode to Saw in it, with the voice on the tape at the beginning sounding not unlike Jigsaw, but it's in no way a rip off of that film, for such a modest production admirably holding it's own and refusing to be shackled by the limitations of it's making. ***

Leofwine_draca From the moment the CD recording of a SAW-style voice is heard on screen, solemnly informing the confused listener that she has a task ahead of her you know this is going to be a familiar type of thriller. And, indeed, everything that follows is entirely predictable and poorly written, with big chunks of exposition regularly dropped into the storyline.Take, for instance, Beesley's line "I've only known you a year". There's no discernible reason somebody in real life would tell their wife/girlfriend this to their face, as it's unsaid knowledge. But THE RECKONING is full of such heavy-handed explanatory lines.It's a two-part drama commissioned by ITV and one of their lesser efforts. Ashley Jensen, hot from her success in America, is cast in the lead role but struggles with the emoting required. She's full of strangulated noises and expressions of mock horror straight out of acting school. Beesley is better, but appears to be sleepwalking through a character whose motivations never ring true.The plotting is the worst aspect, and although the pacing picks up in the second half the logic and editing fall apart. And I can't help finding it slightly distasteful that they fall back on the old cliché of a kid with a brain tumour to garner audience sympathy. One to miss.