SEEKING JUSTICE (2011)

MyRating: YYY1/2

Director: Roger Donaldson

Cast: Nicolas Cage, January Jones, Guy Pearce, Harold Perrineau, Jennifer Carpenter, IronE Singleton, Xander Berkeley, Marcus Lyle Brown, Cullen Moss

MPAA: Rated R for violence, language and brief sexuality

Will Gerald (Nicolas Cage), a high scool teacher, never knows that his perfect life with her beautiful wife Laura (January Jones) will suddenly go upside down, just after spending their happy time together celebrating their anniversary, when one day Laura is being sexually assaulted by an ex-con.

Feeling anguish, shaken and confused, while his wife is being hospitalized for her badly beaten up condition, Will is approached by a stranger named Simon (Guy Pearce), representing a vigilante group, who offers him a service to seek for justice by 'executing' the person who has attacked his wife. Will just has to say yes, and they will do it for him. Clean and safe. What he has to give in return is only to agree to help them back if any time in the future the group asking him for some 'small' favors. Hesitant but feeling pity for his wife, Will agrees to Simon's offer.

Life seems to slowly back to normal, when six months later Will is being contacted again by Simon, asking him to repay his debt by doing something for his vigilante group. The thing is, what Will has to do is to kill a guy whom the group accused as a pedophile and a danger to the society. On realising that no killing blood is running in his stream, Will knows that he can't do such a thing. But Simon is not easily to let it go and the group cannot accept 'no' for an answer. Soon, Will faces another kind of terror that may endanger his family, which will make him regret to ever accept their offer at the first place.

This is a surprisingly good action thriller from Nicolas Cage, who seemed to stumble in continuously making bad movies for some time. But I assure you, this movie is not one of them. The revenge theme is not something new, and at a glance, this movie may look like another typical crime thriller. But this is actually not just an ordinary revenge movie, as revenge is not something that our main protagonist badly pursuing for here. Rather he is halfly forced to take a revenge by using other people's hands, but still he has to pay for the result of his decision afterwards.

This is a well-made and entertaning movie with a slowly built suspense. Maybe a bit predictable, but I didn't find it reduce my interests towards the movie, as the story flowed smoothly and well-paced, with enough tensions and actions to be enjoyed. The desperate situation of Will colored the plot, made us wonder how he would escape his unfortunate situation. Good direction from Roger Donaldson (Species, Dante's Peak, Thirteen Days, The Recruit, The World's Fastest Indian and The Bank Job). And good acting from Nicolas Cage and Guy Pearce, who appeared pretty solid and gave this movie some weights. While January Jones was okay as the wife (this has been a pretty busy year for this Mad Men actress, after also appearing in Unknown and X-Men: First Class). I don't know when this movie will get a wide release in the U.S., but believe me, it is definitely worth to be checked out. It was a good movie. (MJ)

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