REVIEW — “Good People”

Filmed entirely in London, “Good People” is a slow paced thriller with an great cast, but mediocre story telling.

The story tries to mimic Hitchcock’s style of taking ordinary people and putting them in extraordinary situations, but falls short.  Tom (James Franco)  and Anna (Kate Hudson) are a married couple whose life plans have not panned out as they have expected.  After their downstairs tenant passes away, they discover a large bag of money hidden in his room.  Their desperation and greed gets the better of them and soon they are mixed up with two groups of Guy Ritchie-ish gangsters  and both good and crooked cops.  It’s a lot for these simple working class Americans to deal with.

While there are a handful of cool shots and cinematography, the entire film is filmed with a muted pallet.  This helps create an ever-present sense of dread, but it also makes it less enjoyable to watch.  The cast and performances are all great, but not exceptional.  Everything about this movie is very non-exceptional.  That’s not to say it is bad, quite the contrary, it’s just not special.  Nothing sets it apart from numerous other movies.  The slow and brooding pace is punctuated only occasionally by moments of brutal violence.

Overall, its a fine way to pass an evening at home, but it’s not a film you’re likely to remember a month later.  Although, the odd fact that it’s the second movie released this week to feature a Lethal-Home-Alone segment, complete with Nail-Gun-kills may make it stick in your head longer than expected. (Seriously, what is it with Hollywood’s obsession with Nail guns!?)

3 out of 5 Stars

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