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movie review - Safe House

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

This is a spy/action movie in which one character (played by Ryan Reynolds) is guarding a CIA "safe house" and the other (played by Denzel Washington) is one of the world's most wanted criminals. You know before meeting Washington what the story is, because they cast Brendan Gleeson has Reynold's boss. When the safe house is attacked, it's immediately obvious that Gleeson and others are going to fall under suspicion for having set up that attack.

A lot of what follows is high-speed action with plenty of cuts from camera to camera in the style of many spy/action movies of the past decade.

But on the whole it works. The story, though shaky, holds, and there are no real disappointments. Washington can of course carry anything, and between him and Reynolds there's enough charisma and intelligence to make it through some of the jerky camera work and harried scene progression.

Recommended. Good for the kind of night that follows the kind of day when you need to watch a movie.