Seeking Justice (2011) starring Nicolas Cage, January Jones, Guy Pearce, Harold Perrineau, Jennifer Carpenter, IronE Singleton, Wayne Pére directed by Roger Donaldson Movie Review

Seeking Justice (2011)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Nicolas Cage in Seeking Justice (2011)

Shallow Justice

Whilst Will (Nicolas Cage - Drive Angry) is out playing chess with his friend his wife Laura (January Jones) is finishing up orchestra practice but after she leaves she is raped and assaulted. Having rushed to the hospital Will is approached by a man called Simon (Guy Pearce - Don't Be Afraid of the Dark) who fronts an organization of civilians who can sort out the man who did this in return for a favour. Whilst unsure he accepts the offer and soon after receives a photo of the dead man. 6 months later and with Laura still struggling to recover from her ordeal Will gets a call from Simon who is calling in that favour. But the favour is to kill another man and Will is no killer, with Simon mounting pressure on him to come good Will plans to speak to the man he is meant to kill but accidentally kills him. And things get even crazier when the police arrest him and he learns that the man he killed was a journalist investigating this group of vigilante killers.

"Seeking Justice" which is also known as "Justice" is one of those movies which works if you get caught up in the moment, in the creativity of a scene but don't ask questions. Take for example the initial meeting between Simon and Will when Simon says he knows who the rapist was and that if Will wants them to proceed he needs to buy 2 specific chocolate bars from a specific vending machine. Nicolas Cage sells that scene as watching him go to the vending machine you know the thoughts going through his head, does he really want to order a man killed and how are they going to know it was him who brought the chocolate bars. It is a great scene which sucks you in to the ingenuity of the signal mechanism but also how they are monitoring him. Except if you take a breath and question it it all begins to fall apart, a stylish scene with no purpose and how in hells name do they know so quickly who the rapists was?

Guy Pearce in Seeking Justice (2011)

As such whilst we have this interesting idea of a vigilante hit squad who call in favours from those they duped in to asking for help it is all about the set pieces. I could go on because "Seeking Justice" is full of these scenes which try to get you sucked in to what is going on in that scene without rationalizing it. I won't tell a lie it is very entertaining but the minute you do stop to think it dissolves away as you realise it is all quite shallow.

The good thing is that whilst this is not Nicolas Cage at his best it is his skill as an actor who makes all of this work; it is his reactions which suck you in. In fact director Roger Donaldson also deserves credit because it is also his framing and pacing which makes these scenes so effective. But that does mean that whilst Guy Pearce takes you aback with his shaved head and January Jones is attractive as Laura they end up seriously under used.

What this all boils down to is that "Seeking Justice" is on the surface an entertaining movie but only if you chose not to think about it too much and allow yourself to be caught up in all the "intelligent" intrigue.


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