Bring Him To Me – REVIEW

If moviegoers attend screenings of this ‘C’ grade Australian crime thriller with low expectations they may actually find it mildly entertaining.

The story surrounds a getaway driver (Barry Pepper) who has been instructed by his crime lord to deliver one of his fellow crime crew members (Jamie Costa) to a certain destination, where he will be ambushed and most certainly executed owing to an alleged deceitful act which he committed.

There’s a long drive ahead and it proves to be quite an eventful night. Both men open up about their lives and the demons they are fighting. A bond quickly develops between them. The crime lord warns the driver to be careful of the man who is living on borrowed time. Will the driver deliver the proud father of a young daughter to his execution or will his better judgement and conscience disallow such a scheduled atrocity?

It’s quite obvious from the opening credits that this road trip style of film was produced on a shoestring budget. Flashbacks are incorporated in the storytelling process, which blend past events with the present and what’s meant to bring audiences up to speed with the narrative, actually evokes confusion thanks to questionable editing.

High speed car chase scenes slightly boost interest levels. There’s a surprise appearance by high caliber actor Sam Neill as a doomed businessman who attempts to avenge a robbery with a threatening message: “You robbed the wrong person – nobody steals from me and gets to live!”

Rachel Griffiths is the standout performer, who has seemingly stepped into the role of the merciless crime lord with the utmost ease. She delivers a deliciously evil performance which accelerates until the climactic finale, where a twist in the story should have audiences sitting up and taking note.

Ultimately, this is just another run-of-the-mill crime thriller which should go straight to streaming – an average ‘time killer’ worth watching but don’t expect anything original or memorable.

★★1/2

In cinemas November 2