Comparisons to the Fugitive are obvious so I won't go into that here. This gritty UK production benefits from an excellent tortured performance from Sean Bean. *Minor Spoiler*. We know he's an undercover officer early on because NCIS (National Criminal Intelligence Service) have a meeting to disown him. What we don't know is did he murder his family? This basic question provides the viewer with a bumpy ride. Is he a tortured soul or a deranged maniac? What helps in the confusion is that the supporting players steadfastly believe that he did kill his family and the viewer is left unsure until the last act.
This is an unnerving bedfellow because we don't know if we want to route for Neil Byrne or not.
Some scenes work especially well such as when Neil is watching children in a school playground and is approached by a Policeman; Sean delivers his dialogue as though he's in a dream recounting a floating memory, but what memory? A loving family man who will never see his own child again or some deranged fantasy of killing an innocent?
The chase scenes and action set pieces were very well put together. I found that the street fight and the fight in the cab office were choreographed to deliver the strong sense of animal energy rather than flamboyant 'clean' martial artistry or comic book violence.
The supporting characters lend emotion and intrigue to move the plot along; I agree with the comments on the dry black humour from Nitin Chandra Ganatra as the cab office owner, very funny and in just the right measure, Juliet Hubrey displayed a powerful sexy persona with a tenuous grip on the head of the crime family, Alex Norton is excellent as usual as the no nonsense cop (a role he took with him to Taggart). On a downside the NCIS head of section isn't fleshed out very well and his character forms part of an unbelievable plot device later on.
Although the ending provides a satisfactory conclusion to the story I feel that the tension built up on the journey beforehand deserved something more spectacular.
This is an unnerving bedfellow because we don't know if we want to route for Neil Byrne or not.
Some scenes work especially well such as when Neil is watching children in a school playground and is approached by a Policeman; Sean delivers his dialogue as though he's in a dream recounting a floating memory, but what memory? A loving family man who will never see his own child again or some deranged fantasy of killing an innocent?
The chase scenes and action set pieces were very well put together. I found that the street fight and the fight in the cab office were choreographed to deliver the strong sense of animal energy rather than flamboyant 'clean' martial artistry or comic book violence.
The supporting characters lend emotion and intrigue to move the plot along; I agree with the comments on the dry black humour from Nitin Chandra Ganatra as the cab office owner, very funny and in just the right measure, Juliet Hubrey displayed a powerful sexy persona with a tenuous grip on the head of the crime family, Alex Norton is excellent as usual as the no nonsense cop (a role he took with him to Taggart). On a downside the NCIS head of section isn't fleshed out very well and his character forms part of an unbelievable plot device later on.
Although the ending provides a satisfactory conclusion to the story I feel that the tension built up on the journey beforehand deserved something more spectacular.
