Another movie portraying and suggesting how criminal offences happen best in a land far away from the western world.
The real-life lesson: there is on lesson that can be taken from this: scams do exist. I personally am a very optimistic person and would rely on peoples good intention and will in most cases not thinking about scams, but as this movie shows, scams are common and should be taken seriously. Also, people should not be believed just because they show up to your door and ask you to follow them on the basement (like the couple beloved the girl when she said she knew where Nina was.
Plausibility: the scam happening is definitely possible and so is the way the couple escapes. This as a matter of fact was one of the strengths of the movie: the criminals are people too and so they make mistakes and things get out of their control (like loosing the Steven at the bank or leaving the girlfriend alone with the couple and they escaping from girlfriends guard).
Character analysis: Benjamin- a polite criminal - hated betrayal and was extremely greedy. All we know about him is that he claimed to be adapted too, why he did what he did was not explained and so left us with the implication that money was the only reason. He could have been developed further to give us a better understanding of his actions. Steven-bad decision maker- decisions that had had bad consequences in the past and as a result his self esteem and confidence is shaken. Shannon-bringing up that Steven's decisions have not always been the best (in the hotel when she said that use your judgement) did definitely not make her my favourite. But not be so harsh she is human and things are said at times when emotions are high as was the case with Shannon.
Acting: Rachelle Lefevre was great and so was John Cusack. At the beginning I was thinking why did they cast Ryan Phillippe when he was doing such a poor job, but if the character was of Ryan Phillippe was supposed to be someone that comes across as insecure or a coward (as I learned later that this was the case ) than Ryan Phillippe too did a great job in bringing his character across as exactly that-insecure.
Plot/Storyline development: it was at times slow. Especially when the movie was so keen to show us what a wonderful time the family was having. I think those scenes could have been moved way after. What I loved however was how when I believed that the story was over and they are save now only waiting for the criminal lady to be catch, the final action had not even started. That was an unexpected turn of events for me that I liked.
The real-life lesson: there is on lesson that can be taken from this: scams do exist. I personally am a very optimistic person and would rely on peoples good intention and will in most cases not thinking about scams, but as this movie shows, scams are common and should be taken seriously. Also, people should not be believed just because they show up to your door and ask you to follow them on the basement (like the couple beloved the girl when she said she knew where Nina was.
Plausibility: the scam happening is definitely possible and so is the way the couple escapes. This as a matter of fact was one of the strengths of the movie: the criminals are people too and so they make mistakes and things get out of their control (like loosing the Steven at the bank or leaving the girlfriend alone with the couple and they escaping from girlfriends guard).
Character analysis: Benjamin- a polite criminal - hated betrayal and was extremely greedy. All we know about him is that he claimed to be adapted too, why he did what he did was not explained and so left us with the implication that money was the only reason. He could have been developed further to give us a better understanding of his actions. Steven-bad decision maker- decisions that had had bad consequences in the past and as a result his self esteem and confidence is shaken. Shannon-bringing up that Steven's decisions have not always been the best (in the hotel when she said that use your judgement) did definitely not make her my favourite. But not be so harsh she is human and things are said at times when emotions are high as was the case with Shannon.
Acting: Rachelle Lefevre was great and so was John Cusack. At the beginning I was thinking why did they cast Ryan Phillippe when he was doing such a poor job, but if the character was of Ryan Phillippe was supposed to be someone that comes across as insecure or a coward (as I learned later that this was the case ) than Ryan Phillippe too did a great job in bringing his character across as exactly that-insecure.
Plot/Storyline development: it was at times slow. Especially when the movie was so keen to show us what a wonderful time the family was having. I think those scenes could have been moved way after. What I loved however was how when I believed that the story was over and they are save now only waiting for the criminal lady to be catch, the final action had not even started. That was an unexpected turn of events for me that I liked.