There are women in the film, but none has anything you could call a personality.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This has Noir written all over it and I desperately wanted to give a it a 10 but, as it progressed, its shortcoming were revealed and I had to settle for a 5. Shame. It had so much promise.It starts brilliantly with an excellent noir backdrop and a superb modern noir music theme. The (anti?)hero is a smoker - how much more noir can you get!?It hits all the spot - beatings, abductions, threats, being followed, spooks, friends in danger - and worse!.However, much is shot in dim lighting with faded colours so it's not always easy to see what's happening. Atmospheric? If you have to resort to such tricks then No. In The Third Man and The Maltese Falcon every frame was clear. Dim lighting does not equal atmosphere. Who's at fault - the director or cinematographer? Let them share the blame.It tries to fill the troublesome middle section (actually most of the first 3/4 of the movie with flashback exposition. Too much, too much, and not all required. The backstory was quite well telegraphed without all that, and a backstory with the most unlikely of pairings in the history of cinema! (although if Billy Piper could fancy Chris Evans, other than for his money, then any match is fair game!)Add as the editor or director decides to play fast and loose with totally unnecessary film effects (motion blurring and, heck, just blurred filming and shaky hand-help camera work), you start to wonder what happened to the 'noir'. And as the filming deteriorated, so did the music. From the initial atmospheric theme, it descended into electronic thriller mode. And as the theme of a missing girl morphs into a semi-global political and terrorist theme, the 'magic' of noir is lost.Sorry if that sounds damning. It's not so much, but it is incredibly disappointing. Even China Town didn't have to go that far to 'try' to be important. It's not about the theme, it's about the people.So, you might be surprised it still gets an 6. I am! But it loses more points for disappointment than for lack of initial effort. It's still worth watching but it should have been so much better.

I really enjoyed this British take on the noir genre. It had a sensitive and moving performance by Riz Ahmed as a troubled PI. The plot, like all good noir, is satisfyingly layered. In addition to being an excellent whodunit, it addresses Islamophobia, the treatment of immigrants and the growing feeling that there are hidden agendas that affect our everyday lives. Not high budget or flashy but very well done. Highly recommended.

I get that mumbling dialogue is somehow a thing now. But combined with the terrible sound mixing and overbearing music this film is incomprehensible.Yes, I am a "yank", but I spent 18 months in the UK so I usually don't have a hard time with London accents.But really this film comes off as a music video or advert for the sound track, the dialogue is pretty much pointless.

From what I actually did pick up on from the movie, the story was pretty interesting and Riz Ahmed did a pretty good job. It was incredibly hard to understand what everybody in the movie were saying, the background noise was too loud, the music was too loud, and the heavy accents at low volumes are hard to understand if you're not familiar with how they speak in England. I don't think they need to change their voices or anything, it's how they speak and I totally respect that, it was just hard to understand for me and most of the audience at my screening.My suggestion: watch it with subtitles when it releases on Blu-Ray and DVD.Seen at TIFF 2016.