Movies starring Richard Gere are hard to come by these days. But to star in this particular one (Claire Danes probably wanted to work with Gere, that I get), I have to wonder why.

Maybe it’s because of a chance to work with the director, Andrew Lau, one of the recent “exports” of Hong Kong. It’s not a bad suspense-thriller and it was shot quite well, but the story itself wasn’t something to die for really.

It’s very difficult to relate to the characters as the story emphasised on the job at hand and very little on character background or development. The relationship between the two leads was also never given much focus.

I have a feeling that the failure of the movie may be due to “lost in translation”. It needed a director that fully understood the screenplay, who can delve into the soul of the project, to make it work better. Probably didn’t help much when this is Lau’s first American debut.

On a side note, I was surprised to see Avril Lavigne with a cameo here.

Rating: 5 / 10

(images from imdb.com)