Olivia Wilde is eternally grateful that her brother killed her abusive father, yet, at the first chance of having a boyfriend, she kills that same brother, while there are obvious alternatives (like, shooting him in the leg).The brother is ready to set her loose into possible death in the cold, yet, when he finally finds her again, he seems to not want to let her loose at all.The boyfriend is this winner of the Olympic medal, who was tricked into doing something bad and then take the fall for it. You know, there's a certain level of abilities needed to get that far, especially in boxing. Yet, when he gets out of jail, he's completely overwhelmed with some aimless rage and thirst for revenge and falls head-over-heals for the very first girl he meets, who's obviously quite beside herself. And, let's be honest, not even that hot to loose your mind over - sure, some guys may like Olivia Wilde and her interesting eyes, but, she's just not the type of girl to wear the cocktail dress all that well.There's a lot of similar things with other characters, but they are less important, so don't want to spend time on them. Basically, the same inconsistencies are all around.Oh, yeah, and they succeeded in making Kate Mara not look cute. That's something, I guess.On the plus side, it's decently acted, has a good flow for this type of a movie. You won't be bored. But, you'll be left with a lot of "what the hell"s, so... why bother?

I so badly wanted to give Deadfall a glowing, untarnished review of unconditional positivity. But I can't, because it doesn't have an ending. It gets to a point where the conflict is partially resolved, and we see things begin to fall into place, and then it just... ends. Now a certain level of ambiguity works in some cases, to add mystery. But here it overthrows the entire dose of suspense and leaves us wondering sickly what will happen to the protagonist's arc that the film left unresolved. It's like they had a missing reel and no one noticed in time for the premiere lol. Nevertheless, it's 90 percent of a great film, a snowbound thriller (my favourite kind) that's character and actor based, with a lean, mean mentality that bites as hard as the winter cold that the characters wrestle with. Eric Bana, an actor who lulled us into a false sense of security with unassuming roles, then blasted off with Star Trek, in the best work of that film, explores his dark side further here as Addison, a ruthless bank robbing criminal with a poetic morality that serves as a mask to the malicious beast beneath. Along with his dimwitted but leggy sister Liza (sultry Olivia Wilde) he narrowly escapes a bank robbery, fleeing into the snowy northern wilderness bordering Canada, only to be derailed by a horrific car crash and forced into the blizzards on foot. They are pursued by Sheriff Marshall T. Becker (Treat Williams) and his deputies, including his daughter Hanna (Kate Mara) who he bitterly resents for being a female police officer. Mara is an excellent actress who gives the role the intuition it deserves, when she ends up being the only cop on the small town force with a brain in her head. The chase envelops an ex con boxer (Charlie Hunnam) on his way home to spend thanksgiving with his parents (Kris Kristofferson and Sissy Spacek). Hunnam does his usual irritating swagger, and carries his end well enough I guess (Not a fan of his, personally). But Bana owns the film with his ferocious, palpably evil portrayal of man with utterly no conscience and a survival instinct that drive him to corrupt and obliterate anyone in his path. His gruff, menacing turn brings to mind tough guys of yesteryear, like Lee Marvin and Robert Mitchum. There's also a startling incest angle with the relationship to Liza that I would like to see explored more. It's a carefully constructed thriller with weight, tangible menace and unique, almost Elmore Leonard or Jack London style atmosphere, until it shits it's pants in the final minutes of the third act. If you can forgive it this (which I'm learning to do, only because I'm such a huge fan of the rest of the movie before) you'll get an icy kick out of it.

This movie explicitly states that they are in northern Michigan (the upper peninsula) and all I could think about the entire time was how terrible and unrealistic everyone's accents were. Disappointing because it subtracted from the quality of the movie. Details like that aren't trivial and I'm wondering why they chose to have a police Captain who sounds like he's from Boston, Charlie Hunnam who has a weird "American" accent that just sounds off for some weird reason, and Australian Eric Bana speaking like he's from Alabama.... Just odd choices all around. On a positive note, the film kept my attention and unfolded at a nice pace. It has pretty scenery. The violence is graphic enough to make you cringe but is realistic. Over all I give it a "B".

"What would home look like? I don't know. A farmhouse in the valley, I guess, like the one we grew up in, Liza and I."Academy Award winning director for his foreign film The Counterfeiters, Stefan Ruzowitzky, now brings us an American crime thriller dealing with dysfunctional families. It seems to be an odd choice for a director who had so much success back in Austria considering this is an average B-film that doesn't introduce anything new or unique to the genre. Deadfall never manages to deliver the thrills that it promises either and has a rather unsatisfying ending. At times it felt like a film that was trying to be something else, but it never quite figured out what it wanted to be and ended up only scratching the surface of the dysfunctional family drama it was so desperately tying to explore. Perhaps it suffered from trying to add several subplots and intertwine them together towards the climactic end, but ultimately Deadfall felt like your average crime thriller with a strong ensemble cast, but a poor and unimaginative script. Deadfall never quite delivers the thrills and the characters are underdeveloped turning this film into a messy ordeal. As much as I wanted to enjoy this, I couldn't find anything redeeming about it, and not even the beautiful Olivia Wilde shines here. It's a dull film that tries to be more important than it really is with way too many subplots and overlapping themes that are barely explored.The screenplay was written by Zach Dean centering on two siblings, Addison (Eric Bana) and Liza (Olivia Wilde), who are heading towards the Canadian border after having pulled of a casino heist. We never see the actual heist take place since the film opens with them already in route to the border when all of a sudden in the midst of a blizzard their vehicle crashes into a deer. Addison is forced to kill the patrolman and decides to split up with Liza and meet up later as the police will be after him. On another note, we are introduced to a former boxer named Jay (Charlie Hunnam) who is being released from prison. The first thing Jay does is call his mother June (Sissy Spacek) who lives in a farmhouse near the spot where Addison and Liza crashed. She invites Jay over for Thanksgiving dinner despite the fact that he's been estranged with his father Chet (Kris Kristofferson). Along the way, Jay finds Liza nearly freezing to death near the highway and he decides to give her a lift. Addison on the other hand is being hunted by Sheriff Becker (Treat Williams) and his men who are closing in on the trail of blood he's left behind. Becker's daughter, Hannah (Kate Mara), whose also an officer is ordered to stay in the station and out of trouble. As the characters are all introduced it becomes inevitable to realize that they are all going to intersect somewhere along the way.Despite the talented ensemble cast, the script is so poorly written that there is not much they can do to prevent their characters from becoming cardboard cutouts. Even the always reliable and legendary actors such as Kris Kristofferson and Sissy Spacek can't do anything to save this film. Hunnam and Wilde have a very poorly developed romantic subplot that felt extremely rushed. Bana didn't really look too menacing as the villain and at times his character felt cartoonish. The dysfunctional family elements that this film tries to explore never really gets anywhere and they all seem too cliché. The male characters are seen as tough while the females are forgiving and patient. The western showdown near the end wasn't engaging either and everything about this film felt ordinary despite the different themes they were trying to blend together. It never digs under the surface of those elements it's trying to introduce and that's why the film feels so dull and empty. Deadfall is not the important and smart thriller it's trying to be.