Alan White’s polished but pedestrian pic mines little real suspense and few surprises from a formulaic script.
40
The DissolveScott Tobias
The DissolveScott Tobias
By trying to have it both ways—goosing up black-market trafficking for cheap thrills, while posing as being sincere about a real global scourge—the film winds up stuck in the middle.
And to be fair, Cusack doesn’t phone it in. He gives the part his all, displaying his usual expert deadpan comic timing while delivering the weak quips in Carmine Gaeta and Luke Davies’ screenplay. But it’s disheartening nonetheless to see him working so hard to enliven such inferior material.
Carmine Gaeta and Luke Davies' screenplay is constructed from plot mechanics, and the emotional stakes grow less convincing with every twist of the screw.
There are no twists or even surprises, except the final realization that director Alan White is taking his culturally clueless, ineptly shot B-movie totally seriously. Judging from the uniformly underwhelming performances, he’s the only one.
12
Slant MagazineDrew Hunt
Slant MagazineDrew Hunt
Reclaim's highly mechanized plot ensures that the film is over before it even ends.