A new genre is emerging in which aging A-list actors play fathers off on a rampage to rescue their daughters or avenge their deaths. This effort from Martin Campbell offers a few wrinkles on the formula.
It's the only film I've seen set in Roslindale, where I grew up. And one of the screenwriters is William Monahan, whose specialties include funny Boston dialogue and people getting shot in the head. Mel Gibson as a vinegary BPD detective brings a not bad accent to the lines, and he exhibits some of the old Gibson mania as he puts police protocol aside in his hunt for the murderers of his daughter, an employee at a local nuclear-research plant.
Not so edgy are the conspiracy plot and the posthumous, Lovely Bones–like visits by the victim. Finally, one of the suspects is a Republican senator — if this had been shown before last month's Massachusetts election, who knows?
