Thursday, January 2, 2014

Movie Review: Passion (2012)

"Passion" is a suspense/thriller focusing on the relationship between two women working together at an advertising agency in Germany.  Christine (Rachel McAdams) is an executive and enjoys toying with her mousy underling, Isabelle (Noomi Rapace).  While Christine is devious and manipulative, Isabelle proves to be learning much from her boss as the two women engage in a power struggle that results in murder over credit for Isabelle's ad campaign and men.

The only thing I really liked about this film was that we finally see Rachel McAdams breaking out of her good-girl-rom-com role and take on a bad girl like Christine.  It's too bad that this film is such a mess because it could have really helped McAdams get more complex roles.  The writing and directing really did this movie in.  Unfortunately the film sets up an interesting struggle between boss and subordinate but then all the twists and reveals get a bit messy and the result is more of a train wreck than a well-designed thriller. It's almost a film with two distinct halves - one okay and one really bad. The directing was also poor with  Rapace looking stiff and cold rather than the actress I've seen her to be in other films and a lot of just awkward choices.

If you're looking for a good thriller, keep looking - D+