This is a wet dream of a film for the conspiracy theorists amongst us! "Ewan" (Amit Shah) and his wife "Silke" (Sura Dohnke) are holed up in a rather nice lakeside house in Flanders. They are awaiting the arrival of a journalist to whom they are going to impart some fairly startling information - for a fee, of course. It's so significant that the newspaper sends two minders - "Glynn" (Roger Evans) and "Chris" (Tom Burke) to keep an eye on them. Now these two have worked together for quite a while, but the latter man is eyeing up a career move to the middle east - and he's not necessarily looking to take his mate with him. Over the next 24 hours of their incarceration, we learn a little of the characteristics of these four flawed individuals, and perhaps those who can lip-read might get a clue as to the nature of the big secret! The arrival of foul-mouthed junior journalist "Flo" gives Jenna Coleman a couple of scenes to brings things to an head and deliver a quirky denouement to this lightly, but darkly, comedic shorter drama. For me, the stars are an on-form Evans who delivers well as the Welshman with a few demons to deal with, and Shah who plays the hapless IT geek who takes paranoia to an whole new level. Apparently the title means "whistleblower". It's enjoyable, this film.
Add a Review
-
CinemaSerf2 September 2023
-
henry8-315 March 2024A government IT expert has discovered something horrendous. He and his partner are in hiding in a large house in Belgium awaiting the arrival of a journalist who they will whistleblow their information to. The paper has hired 2 security guards to stay with them until the interview is completed.
Sharp, witty, often tense and ultimately a bit scary. Set almost exclusive in the house this comes across very much like a chamber piece on stage. Most of the film covers the building relationship between the 2 security guards and how they are coming to the parting of the ways career wise and how they get on with the whistleblowers playing trivial pursuit etc.
The only downside to this neatly drawn piece is that it's extremely obvious where it's heading. This doesn't really spoil the story that much though and indeed the climax, whilst predicable, is still chilling. -
IMHO this shows that Neil Maskell has been watching closely in his acting roles for other directors - particularly Ben Wheatley, where he delivered a great performance in Kill List.
Although a "small film", this combines an intriguing premiss with a great cast and delivers tonally with a nice balance between comedy and threat. I'm on board with pretty much anything that Tom Burke does (apart from The Souvenir) and he's great as usual here - as is Jenna Coleman, who is having a blast as a *very* sweary reporter (?).
The script enables some nice interactions between the cast and keeps the tension going pretty much throughout, as befits a nice little thriller.
Recommended. -
helensilk8919 November 2022First of all, can we commend the amazing use of sound in this film? The deep contrasts between loud and quiet is so impactful. Really kept my senses perked the whole time.
Secondly, although the story is quite slow-paced, it kept engaged the ENTIRE film. Didn't lose its grip once. The great use of sound had a lot to do with it.
The conversation was minimalistic, but not boring - on the contrary, it was intriguing and made you want to know more.
The story itself is thought-provoking, and left me with a lot to ponder about at the end. I found it especially fascinating how much and how little we get all at same time.