Seeking Justice

Year: 2011
Director: Roger Donaldson
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Guy Pearce, January Jones, Harold Perrineau, Xander Berkeley, Jennifer Carpenter


Plot: After Will Gerard's wife Laura is assaulted, a man named Simon approaches him, telling him that he represents a vigilante group and offers to take care of the problem. Will agrees, but after that he realizes too late that Simon's price for his services is too high.


Review: Roger Donaldson, who has made diverse films ranging from Cocktail to The Recruit, manages to craft a steady thriller out of Seeking Justice. It is by no means perfect though, as the film becomes quite predictable and lots of plot holes are visible throughout.

Donaldson makes up for it by keeping things moving fairly well. The first half is smooth, and then the plot slows down as Will tries to outrun Simon and his men while trying to get to the bottom of things. But the pace picks up at the climax, and though it can only end one way, the journey there is thrilling enough.

Cage as Will is one of his better roles in the past year. I know he gets a lot of crap for taking all sorts of roles and further driving his once great career down the toilet, but as Will, Cage goes back to playing what he does best, being the everyman. Jones is merely here to support Cage's character, but it's nice to see her doing some real acting for once. Guy Pearce is pretty good as the villainous Simon, and manages to lift the film above average.

There is talk during the film that New Orleans, the city where this takes place, is going to ruin, and I think Donaldson should have tried harder to depict that. All he manages to show the audience is a few graffiti stained walls, some crime reports and an unfinished mall. He can certainly do better than that if he wants to justify a vigilante group's existence.

A decent thriller overall, a watchable film for Cage fans. (3.5/5)