It begins as a dour, low-key character study with an unusually muted Vince Vaughn (below) as all-American patriot Bradley Thomas.
Desperate to solve all his financial and personal problems, Bradley becomes a drugs courier.
Eighteen months later he is living in the lap of luxury and his wife Lauren (Jennifer Carpenter) is pregnant.
Then it all starts to go horribly wrong. Caught and sentenced to seven years in jail, Bradley is then blackmailed.
He must transfer to a maximum-security prison and kill an inmate or his wife and unborn child will suffer unspeakable horrors.
That’s when the film transforms into a nasty B-movie with bone-crunching violence and the appearance of Don Johnson as a sadistic warden.
A hulking, two-fisted Vaughn is surprisingly effective in the kind of film that might once have starred Charles Bronson, but it is not for the fainthearted.
——————-
Dina
★★★★
Dina won the Grand Jury prize at the Sundance Festival this year and is a great example of the way documentaries allow you entry into other people’s lives.
Dina Buono is a feisty 48-year-old preparing to marry her fiancé Scott.
Initially their relationship seems unremarkable as they move in together, share a pizza, watch Sex And The City and snuggle down for the night.
But they are both on the autistic spectrum which makes life that bit more challenging for both of them.
It soon becomes apparent that the couple have some real difficulties. Dina is clearly a lot friskier than Scott.
He might know what sex is but he doesn’t seem to want to experience it for himself. Dina’s need to feel loved and desired grows all the more understandable when we learn of the tragedy that lies in her past.
This modest, sensitively handled documentary becomes as compelling as any drama in this heartbreaking production.