What is it about? I'm not claiming that this film doesn't have a point, but which one? The main character, an MI-5 analyst, is introduced at work, nodding off while reviewing and re-reviewing hidden camera footage of a particular suspected terrorist. He chases around London, searching for more detailed intel on his target, a Middle-Eastern man who-he is sure-is up to something. Part of his motivation is preventing a terrorist from succeeding at terrorism; part is to succeed himself, at last, at his career and make a major interception. To be noticed by his superiors. Unfortunately for him, he makes a few tactical errors, and the target turns out to be a British citizen with a thorough knowledge of his own civil rights. Who is succeeding at what becomes more and more ambiguous as the film comes to its end. Terror? or torture? It's a story with the ring of truth, told in a morose, silent, unsmiling fashion, and with one exception the audience is never quite sure who can be believed. The lone exception, an older man in the Egyptian anti-terror agency, to whom the hero goes for advice, is both the most candid, open and and helpful source he can find, and the worst mistake he could make. The film forces the viewer to decide between living with terrorism, picking and choosing who gets the protection of civil rights, and whether or not torture is acceptable. Take your pick.
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birck17 September 2016
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tmcdaniel12 January 2015Which isn't easy. To sustain a level of tension this gripping for an entire movie without resorting to timeworn plot devices can't be done by Big Hollywood. In addition it clearly takes direction that allows fine actors the time and space to deliver the brilliant performances that are the foundation of the film as they fix one's attention on every word and expression. Well done, all!
Big Hollywood would have taken the premise and injected the obligatory "Hot Woman" into the agent's life. And, of course, there would have been a climax expending hundreds of rounds of ammunition (at least). (As an example see "The Kingdom")They never would have left us with this ending for "Complicit". An ending which is congruent with the body of the film instead of a cinematic "backflip".
A little creative honesty for a change...Thank You.
One point about the antagonists: If you think of them both as soldiers you can realize both, by their own rules, are good soldiers. George Patton loved his country so did SS General Kurt Meyer (a dedicated Nazi). Both were skilled, however, relativity ends at this point.
One just happened to be fighting to preserve Liberty and the other ... Not. As for me, I reject the moral relativism described by another reviewer of this film. No one is morally perfect. However some act in ways that are not to be tolerated. -
Vindelander16 September 2020This could have been so much better as the basic storyline is good but it's really a bit of a damp squib I'm afraid despite a good cast.
Can't really recommend it even though I love spy and espionage stories. -
Strong Acting from David Oyelowo and Ali Asher Compel this British TV-Movie. It Has a Clean Directorial Style that is "Matter of Fact", Sleek and Without Frills.
Those Expecting Hollywood like Antics Spicing up the Story of a Terrorist Suspect and His "Enhanced Interrogation" Concerning a Bio-Weapon on the way to the UK, are going to be Disappointed.
It is Basically a Two-Character Study set Inside MI5 and the Battle of Wits between Spy and Suspect. The Bureaucratic Bloat and Red Tape are the real Villain of the Piece. The Strength of the Film relies on a Realistic Approach and as Entertainment some May find the Film Flat and somewhat Boring.
But the two Leading Characters Never let That Happen. It's an "Edge of Your Seater" as the Race Against Time and the Rage Against the Machine that the Agent Displays, albeit Internally, makes this a Compelling and Topical Movie that is Worth a Watch. -
p_imdb-508-24270024 August 2021Oh dear, what a dreary thing this is. Not entertaining and if anyone tells you that well, that isn't point about these things, it should be to make you think, then you should feel like you're being snowed. Which is precisely what this is all about. Overly-paused moments of belaboured contemplation, a pace that should make your great-granny look sprightly and an odd, unsatisfying conclusion which I'm sure, in the minds of the writers and director, is infused with message of moral dilemma but screams conceit and comes off ho-hum. Well acted, however.
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freshchris17 February 2013To me this was a very good piece of British drama. Understated yet intense, with enough suspense to keep you intrigued to the very end.
The plot is fairly simple. A MI5 agent suspects a person of interest he has been following is about to initiate an act of terror against Britain. The MI5 agent follows him to Egypt where the potential terrorist has been arrested. Then begins a game of cat and mouse about whether the suspect is a terrorist or not and is the MI5 agent right? Simple, but expertly done.
David Oyelowo is a fine leading man as he is in most things. Brooding with a wounded puppy dog look. But the show is stolen by Arsher Ali as the terror suspect. He acts the character brilliantly and he keeps you guessing until the end as to whether he is or not.
Like I said in the title, the pace may be slow for some. But it is shot beautifully, with some expert directing. This is not zero dark thirty, but it has the feel of a true reflection of what actually tracking a terror suspect would be like. Thoughtful and measured. -
ronaldsonphil13 March 2021Slow and boring and in the end totally pointless without a successful conclusion. Well acted and perhaps realistic but not very entertaining
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natashabowiepinky12 March 2013I've often seen Islamic terrorists on television recently, ranting and raving their pathetic personal manifestos which don't even interest 0.000001% of Muslims, let alone the general population. They're hypocrites too... Spouting off about how corrupt the West is but quite happy to partake in our generous benefit system to fund their dangerous propaganda.
The Jihadist as depicted in this brilliant film is one such irredeemable parasites... Banging on about his 'human rights', but plotting to blow us all up simultaneously. What about the 'human rights' of those poor innocents who are blown to smithereens by a brainwashed idiot in a war they have no part in whatsoever?
No wonder the lead character, played with great gravitas by David Oyelowo, finally cracks under the pressure of dealing with all this bullsh*t and goes beyond official protocol to stop this evil guy's plans. From his superiors (In name only) blanking him, to bona-fide evidence he painstakingly uncovers ignored, what dude wouldn't become so frustrated he'd contemplate ditching the kid gloves and trying something more extreme?
Of course, it ultimately blows up in his face, but I think the fault lies firmly at the door of his employees. If they had established a dialogue with him earlier and not left him completely out of the loop, he wouldn't have felt the need to go rogue, ending up with bad consequences for everyone, apart from the nasty, two-faced SOB who wants to murder us all.
Anyway, personal opinions aside, this is a fine piece of work, from the intelligent and realistic way events unfurl, to the skillful plotting which keeps you on tetherhooks throughout. There are also several interrogation sequences that are as dramatic and involving as any scenes involving just two people I've seen in years. Excellent. 8/10 -
brad_sackmann26 May 2022It was an average dialogue driven spy film that kept me waiting for a big climax and it may have been the most disappointing ending that I can ever remember seeing. I suppose it was attempting to have us question our societal ethics vs mass killing and terrorism, but all I could think about was how unfulfilled I felt and how I'd never get those two hours back. It could have been a pretty good movie, but it drove off a cliff.
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leonblackwood31 January 2015Review: This movie seemed to have a very glum undertone which doesn't change throughout. Its based around an MI5 agent who suspects a UK citizen of plotting a terrorist attack. After spending some time pieces his evidence together, he finally gets the help from his agency to track the suspect down. Once they finally find the suspect, they try there utmost to get a confession, but he just won't budge. I was expecting some twists and turns throughout the movie but it just seems to go down one road which becomes boring after a while. In most of the scenes, your watching the agent looking lost and confused, without much help from anyone else. The ending made the English intelligence service look really bad because it showed that there were more worried about there reputation than protecting there country, which isn't a good message to put in a movie. Average!
Round-Up: David Oyelowo isn't a household name yet but he has started in some big movies. From Selma, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Interstellar and Jack Reacher, he can afford to do low budget movies which have a deep message, like this one. The main fault that I found with the film was the slow pace and the fact that it seemed to go round in circles. Arsher Ali, who plays the suspect, has recently been in the Missing series, which got high reviews, but he's yet to blown up on the movie scene. I personally think that this movie needed some other interesting character to make the investigating more intense and dramatic. Its based around 2 characters who will stand up to there beliefs, against all odds, but it didn't show how far they were truly willing to go. With such a deep subject matter, the director should have done a better job.
I recommend this movie to people who are into their English dramas based around a MI5 agent whose trying to get a terrorist suspect to admit to his crimes. 3/10 -
sas201424 February 2021I lost a family member in Man arena. People who have nothing but hatred for our way of life, our culture in our country, should have no rights. I don't care about the ethics& their human rights, when they wants us all dead
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ronalamont-9147223 January 2022I relish a slow paced, dramatic spy story but this one was excruciatingly slow with an all too abrupt inconclusive ending.
At first I thought the long drawn out shots of the hero staring into space, walking endlessly around bazaars, taking an unnecessarily long walk around an empty farm, staring out across the city from his hotel balcony patiently waiting for his phone to ring were all supposed to convey the frustration he was feeling at the hands of his superiors and the bureaucracy. Sadly, it came across as just boring filler. But if the intention was to emphasize how slow the whole process was taking and to illuminate his need to take matters into his own hands I think it failed. I was just bored and had time to recognize that there was something very obsessive and unjustified about the hero's behavior. The simple yet extremely serious story and the many questions and concerns it posed could have been cast, shot and directed so differently and would have resulted in an immensely more powerful film. The production values were poor suggesting perhaps a low budget and the colorization of the piece was suspect unless intentionally dull to match the whole tone of the show.
It quickly became apparent to me that he'd been denied advancement for reasons other than his color (which was implied). He is obsessed with his suspect and embittered so, creating an opportunity to shine, he acts purely upon his research and suppositions and is both criticized and praised for it. I never got the impression he was operating selflessly out of a duty to protect the safety of the British people nor that he was racing against time but it was a good character study. The acting was wooden but that did add to the realism. Boring people doing extremely important jobs bogged down by bureaucracy. Perhaps wrongly, I got the feeling we were supposed to side with him at the end and be angered by the actions of his superiors and a system that 'let him down' but there was never any hard evidence to connect his suspect to the crime nor to exonerate his rogue and immoral behavior so they took the only appropriate course of action they could. For me, his boss telling him that his suspect was devastatingly clever and that he was devastatingly stupid for getting caught and his meek and feeble attempt to justify his actions was the best scene in the whole film. However, it begged the question of their willingness to believe he'd pieced together valuable clues to a very real threat to the nation. We are never privy to how they dealt with that threat going forward.
After such a slow pace, the abrupt ending that begged for a conclusion surprised and annoyed me. I could have lived with it ending in the office but when it continued and follow him going about his day and returning home, I really did expect him to be shot as we're supposed to. But no... very anti-climatic. Given that no terrorist attempt actually happened and that we're left to feel supposedly threatened and unprotected, I would have expected to feel chilled and scared but instead I just felt annoyed I'd wasted 90 mins of my evening watching it. -
bvburnsjr30 July 2021Emotional roller coaster. Superb acting keeps viewer on edge. End sucks. Either give me ending that proved our man a hero, or give a sequel.
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redruin-550-98578121 February 2013As events unfurl the agent is shown to be as much a terrorist as the man he accuses. There is no suspected terrorist for the terrorist himself says the nature of terror is you do not know if there will be an attack it is not the attack itself, even if he was part of no plot he would still be a terrorist for terror is all in the mind. At one point the agent gives a ludicrous speech about free schooling (indoctrination) university (if you can afford it), libraries (true), as things that have been given by Britain. He fails to see that what is given can be taken away.
The agent level of intense delusion is that of the true believer, just like the man he is inTERROgating who acts by doing what is in his heart. Neither side knows anything about freedom the things they believe are salves for their wounded psyche's, their idea of freedom is based on control and control discredits, abuses, terrorizes and worse, while true freedom is freedom from coercion and THEN you are free.