Safe House

UK Release Date. 24 February 2012
Certification. 15
Running Time. 1 hour 55 mins
Director. Daniel Espinosa
Cast. Vera Farmiga, Brendan Gleeson, Ryan Reynolds, Sam Shepard, Denzel Washington.
Rating. 49%

Review.

Following the release of a couple of Scandinavian productions, Universal Pictures handed Swedish director Daniel Espinosa his first Hollywood project - Safe House. The film stars Ryan Reynolds as a lowly CIA agent, Matt Weston and Denzel Washington as a high profile prisoner, Tobin Frost. Weston must return Frost to CIA headquarters after his safe house is breached. Whilst a commercial success, Safe House is predictably formulaic and a pale imitation of more impressive films in the genre - the likes of Three Days Of The Condor, Enemy Of The State and The Bourne Identity.

Safe House opens promisingly with a lengthy, but impressive sequence in which Tobin Frost is pursued through Cape Town by a team of mercenaries. But Safe House is sadly memorable only for one of the most insipid performances I've ever seen from the normally dependable Denzel Washington. The actor has demonstrated that this type of role is well within his lexicon - Training Day, Man On Fire and The Equalizer - but in this instance, his talent is completely wasted.

The film suffers from an unoriginal storyline, a tired and hackneyed screenplay and poorly edited action sequences. The director Espinosa routinely employs a jarring, and frankly unnecessary, hand-held camera throughout much of the action - a decision which is hugely distracting. 

Espinosa's direction lacks any semblance of innovation. In telegraphing every move - including a blatantly obvious plot twist apparent from the outset - and by so rigidly painting by the numbers, the film takes no risks at all. Cliché follows cliché, and the result is a thriller devoid of thrills.