Retribution
Directed by Nimród Antal
- thriller
- action
- adventure
The story
When a mysterious caller plants a bomb under his car seat, a bank executive begins a high-speed chase across the city to complete a specific series of tasks — all with his kids trapped in the back seat.
What it’s like
Hard-edged, rain-slicked night in Berlin: sodium streetlights, cold blue dashboard glow and the harsh white of car interiors, shot with a restless handheld camera that stays tight on a single car and its occupants for most of the runtime. The sound is a driving, percussive synth-and-strings score under constant traffic, sirens and the muffled, clipped voice of a caller on the phone, with the silences made tense rather than restful. The vibe is pressured and claustrophobic, a late-night thriller that plays like a sustained ticking clock in a moving box. Pacing is relentless; there is little respite between set pieces, and the emotional register swings between panic, grim resolve and flashes of tenderness between a stressed father and his frightened children. Violence is frequent and physical, with car crashes, fistfights and shootings, and there is a bomb threat throughout; it is intense and bloody in places but not gratuitous gore, and there is some peril to children and mild profanity. Best for viewers who want a tense, fast action film with a clear moral spine and do not mind sustained stress or on-screen violence.
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