Five Fingers Review

Five Fingers (2008)

2/4

Laurence Malkin and his feature film surrounding muslims and a american forcing a dutch accent almost seems comedic. But its guessing game and elegent thrills that causes the loss of human fingers doesnt seem so pleasant. Laurence Fishburn and Ryan Phillipe are fine actors that make this film work. Everything else seems subtle and undesirable.

The plot follows a dutch pianist Martijn(Phillipe) who travels to Morroco to assist his food program with a million embezzled dollars. With the help of his scottish tour guide Gavin(Colm Meaney), they travel unto Morroco only to get kidnapped by some religious muslims. The two is then introduced to Ahmat(Fishburne) who kills off the scottish guy and then tortures the dutch. How reluctant. From that point, a guessing game begins that dwells into lies, honesty, and betrayal.

Most of the time, all you really see is a man tied to a chair playing chess in some warehouse filled toilet drapings and terrorists. Although I liked the clausterphobic approach, the silly games doesnt hold up. What kind of a interrogation is that. Lets play chess and play Q & A until you lose all your fingers. Silly but can be quite violent for the naked eye. Another word....graphic.

Its nature was to be a mystery twist filled lies that lead up to a mans death. Its set up to project fear unto its viewer. Its trying to screw with us. Love it or hate it, it was exciting. The suspense and revelations are some of its tools to excite and scare us. What you expect doesnt turn out to be. Exept, its the exact oppisite. One seems so friendly, just became public enemy. Lets just say that a dutch pianist is planning to destroy the world. Won't tell how or why. Find out for yourself. You would get a kick out of it.

A character driven film that relies to much on star power. Despite great actors and a well twisted plot, its drastic approach on torture and stereotypes make this something to forget. Ryan phillipe might be somewhat believable as a dutch but the elements are to disorientated to become anything interesting.