Writer: Andrew Niccol
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Ethan Hawke, Jared Leto
An arms dealer confronts the morality of his work as he is being chased by an Interpol agent.
The film starts with the following line:
"There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other 11?"
Then in the opening credits it traces the life of a bullet from its factory to its final resting place, the head of an African child. The film is largely narrated by the Orlov (Nicolas Cage) which bears some resemblance to Goodfellas. The character is based out of several real life figures who profited largely from the breakup of USSR with all the cold war inventory smuggled out from the former USSR countries. It was interesting to see Ukraine playing an important role in the film and, because of the recent events, Crimea and Odessa meant something.
I think the main problem with the film is that Andrew Niccol, whom I greatly admire, is mindful of the fact that he cannot glamorize it as much as say in Goodfellas because of the subject matter and the film comes off as a bit drab. The other characters apart from Orlov are poorly written or not well developed enough to make an impact. This is especially true for characters played by Jared Leto and Ethan Hawke and they were just wasted. The film just comes off as lots of information they are trying to fit into as a film. It is watchable but not very good. A R Rahman's Bombay theme music is used in one scene.
Rating: 2.5/5
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