Ewan McGregor plays Perry Makepeace a school teacher who is on holiday in Morocco with his girlfriend Gail Perkins (Naomie Harris) as we find out they are trying to work through a troubled period in their relationship and this break is tied in with a work assignment for Harris. During a night out Harris is called away on business leaving McGregor alone in an expensive restaurant but he has caught the eye of a Russian businessman Dima (Stellan Skarsgard) who invites him to join his party. McGregor reluctantly accepts and is brought on a eye opening night out full of the possibility of expensive drinks, drugs and women.

During the night McGregor finds himself warming to Dima who invites him to play tennis with him the following day and soon Dima hands him a USB stick claiming that it contains information on a huge money Russian laundering ring going all the way to the upper echelons of some members of the British government being headed by a cold blooded Russian gangster named ‘The Prince’ (Grigoriy Dobrygin) and so the wheels are set in motion for a cat and mouse game involving Dima, his family, MI6 with McGregor and Harris as pawns.

Handing the USB stick over at customs McGregor is passed into the hands of British agent Hector (Damian Lewis) whose initial disbelief is worn down by McGregors genuinity however he is suffering from such a lack of manpower that he is forced to ask McGregor and Harris for assistance and being a man of morals McGregor feels obliged to help Dima, or more specifically Dimas children, escape to London. It is Skaarsgaard performance that holds the movie together as the plays the outwardly arrogant gangster who stomps around with his chest puffed out peacock like and will kill in the blink of an eye yet with the heart of gold when it comes to the welfare of his family.

There’s more than a little nod to the Hitchcock classics of an everyday man thrust into the middle of spy games in order to save the day in this movie but the film suffers from pushing the limits a little too far as McGregor just seems too keen to be involved for such an ordinary man so our empathy towards him is limited, Harris swings from reluctance to willing accomplice minute by minute and Lewis seems to have a similar mind set, one minute not caring who lives or dies then the next putting his neck on the block for people all of which take away from the believability of the situation. The movie also suffers from a lack of any major tension until the last third so the danger always seems on the peripherals of the story and for an espionage thriller there is not a lot of actual mystery so there are few twists in the tale. In saying that there’s still enough to keep you watching and I would recommend a look if you like thrillers but I would recommend checking out another recent release, Eye In The Sky instead as a better overall film.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5.5 Out Of 10