Thursday, August 23, 2012

The Samaritan (2012)


Samuel L Jackson gets out of jail for the first time in 25 years. He went up because he killed his partner when a grift they were doing went sideways and it became the only way out.

Deciding to change his life he's contacted by the son of the man he killed. He owns a club and has connections to some really bad guys. Jackson wants nothing to do with the "kid" but the kid has other ideas. He wants Jackson's help on scam and he'll do anything to get it.

I had heard very mixed things about this film. Many people I know really disliked it. several hated the "slow" build up of the first hour. A few other people I know loved the film calling one of the few modern noir films.

Side me with the people who like the film.

Sure the film takes the better part of an hour to set the "scam" in motion, but that's time well spent. Its a film that builds characters, both minor and major, with such skill that everything that happens has weight. We like the good guys and we hate the bad guys. We also get an understanding of why everyone reacts as they do. Nothing seems out of place.

The real joy of the film is the course of the plot. Nothing is stuff we've we've seen before. There are some twists and turns here that I didn't see coming. Even better even as things went down I expected them to lead into things that never happened. I loved how this film had me thinking in all sorts of wrong directions.

I need to mention that if you've seen the trailer forget it. Sure you've seen clips from the film, but the way they are arranged will lead you to think things are different than they are. Three cheers for whom ever cut it.

A solid recommendation from me...so much so I'm going to pick this up on DVD.

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