Seeking Justice (2011) [Blu-ray]
Action | Drama | Thriller

Tagline: Vengeance always has a price.

Nicolas Cage is Will Gerard, a family man whose life is turned upside-down when his wife, Laura (January Jones), is brutally attacked. At the hospital, Will is approached by Simon, (Guy Pearce) who proposes an intriguing offer: Simon will arrange to have a stranger exact vengeance on Laura's attacker, in exchange for a favor from Will in the near future. Will consents to the deal, unwittingly pulling himself into a dangerous vigilante operation that could lead to frightening and deadly consequences for himself and his family.

Storyline: In New Orleans, English teacher of the high school Rampart High, Will Gerard, and his wife, musician Laura Gerard, are in love with each other. One night, Laura leaves a rehearsal and is assaulted, while Will is playing chess with his friend Jimmy. Will is visiting her in hospital when, out of the blue, a stranger named Simon tells him that he belongs to an organization of vigilantes and offers to eliminate the assailant. In return, the organisation would want a favor from Will in the future. Will agrees, and the criminal is murdered. Six months later, Simon collects his debt with Will. He demands that Will kill Alan Marsh, a pedophile. Will accidentally kills Alan and soon he learns that the victim was an awarded journalist that was investigating the organization. Now he seeks evidences to prove his innocence but the network of the organization is powerful and is seeking Will out to eliminate him. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

User Comment: collipal-1 from Argentina, 16 January 2012 • I was not very interested in watching Seeking Justice but I decided to risk myself, because the publicity and the title suggested a typical tale of personal revenge in the purest style of B cinema, and besides, Nicolas Cage can be a good actor whenever he wants to. To my surprise, the film ended up defying my low expectations with a screenplay which is more ambitious than I expected, and even though it eventually tangles itself too much for its own good, I never found it boring or predictable.

I found the concept of Seeking Justice very interesting...something like an hybrid thriller, built with parts from Fight Club, Straw Dogs and Strangers on a Train. The combination works pretty well until the half of the film, when we get into conspiracy fields which quickly become confusing, improbable and even a bit ridiculous. However, Roger Donaldson's dynamic direction avoids the movie from getting boring. Cage makes a credible work in the leading role, and he is well complemented by the solid performances from January Jones and Guy Pearce.

So, I would say that the screenplay from Seeking Justice is simultaneously its main pro and its main obstacle, because it starts with an interesting idea, it develops it well for a while, but it looses the course and the narrative focus during the second half, until leading to an excessively convenient ending.

Anyway, I had a good time while watching Seeking Justice, and I consider it worthy of a moderate recommendation. However, if you wanna watch better movies about revenge, I recommend you Oldboy, both versions of I Spit on Your Grave or Death Wish. Nevertheless, I liked Seeking Justice despite its fails, and it was better than I expected.

Summary: Entertaining and better than I expected.

User Comment: Harriet Downey from United Kingdom, 27 November 2011 • Nicolas Cage and Guy Pearce aren't exactly my favourite actors, I can't put my finger on why but they both just really annoy me. So I didn't have very high expectations going into this film, thinking that I would be rolling my eyes at every word they uttered. The fact that I enjoyed the film, is either a nod to my ability of being able to withstand irritating people or that it was actually a really good film.

The untimely incident with Will's (Cage) wife (January Jones), was made even more disturbing by the juxtaposition of him playing chess. Such an ugly event opposed to a tranquil game, it worked really well. I did have a little pernickety moment, when Will went to visit his wife in hospital. His character just didn't seem believable, he didn't even ask what had happened to her or how she was. Most normal people would (ok, moment over).

The snakeskin shoes worn by the villain is a great reiteration of the phrase several characters use, "This place (New Orleans) is going to hell," and judging by the choice of the initial villain's footwear, he's going to be the one to take them there.

January Jones shows how to fight back, with her major "girl power" moments and as a teensy feminist, I loved it. Alongside a thrilling plot, I was pleasantly surprised.

Summary: Pleasantly Surprising.

User Comment: *** This review may contain spoilers *** Neil Welch from United Kingdom, 25 November 2011 • We do love Nicolas Cage, don't we? His career is always interesting, even if his films aren't - he seems to make, in equal measure (although not necessarily consecutively) critically acclaimed art-house movies, multiplex crowd pleasers, and utter clunkers. Justice (aka Seeking Justice) seems to have been prejudged as being a clunker.

It tells of what befalls teacher Will Gerard (Cage), after his musician wife Laura (January Jones) is brutally raped and beaten. He is approached in the hospital waiting room by mysterious and vaguely menacing stranger Simon (Guy Pearce) who observes how little the law seems to do for people in the Gerards' situation, and offers to fill that gap - and it will only cost some sort of small favour in the future. Seeing his wife's condition, Will accepts, and Laura's rapist duly turns up dead in fairly short order. Then Simon calls Will for the favour, and that's when things go pear-shaped.

This isn't such a clunker as you may have been led to believe. It isn't a multiplex crowd-pleaser either, but it has a good set-up, a gritty feel, and a cast who perform with commitment. The resolution, unfortunately, isn't as good as the set-up, and the script isn't too brilliant (with, frankly, some fairly unbelievable stuff in it), but it is a decent, if unexceptional, thriller - there have been much worse, and Cage has been responsible for some of them!

Summary: Tolerable thriller.

[CSW] -3.1- I am not normally a big fan of Nicholas Cage but this movie starts good and has a great story line. It keeps you interested all the way through and even Nicholas Cage did a good job in this one. It has everything you would like in an action-thriller movie. And they did a pretty good psychological job on the characters too. So while it's not a classic, it's certainly Cage's best effort in years and definitely worth a rental.
[V4.5-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.

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