Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Excuse the pun title, I couldn't resist. This movie Salvage Mice (2011) is about two girls both about 22 years old who are from different parts of Japan. The "thief" Mai (Mitsuki Tanimura from The Girl Who Leaped Through Time and 13 Assassins) traveled to (The Martial Artist's) Mio's (Julia Nagano) hometown to recover some "treasure" that was stolen. Mio can't tell if Mai is good or bad until near the end of the film. The two develop a friendship and share their skills as fighters and eventually combine that skill to fight the real "bad" or villain. Of course the "bad" is a white American guy who barely speaks Japanese, because Japanese film makers love to villainize that gender and race...but it isn't like American film makers don't do it back to the Japanese anyways... of did in the 1970-1990s. In this movie however, this is done poorly and cliché, but the movie is still fun to watch if you like female heroines and action films with silly characters who can fight.