Good start, but then it gets ruined

Best movie ever!

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

It's a kind of tour de force for a crime thriller. Two men who are lovers, the young Martin Compston and the dominant older Eddie Marsan, kidnap the young woman who is the daughter of some filthy rich magnate and demand a quick ransom while they hold her captive -- shackled, hooded, and gagged with one of those BSM red balls -- in a shabby room.Those are the only three characters, and there are only two sets.It doesn't sound promising, does it? The girl, probably a virgin, screaming for help as the two brutes ravage her; the torment of the parents; the determination of the police; the recorded phone calls about the ransom; the argument about whether she should be left behind as a witness; bath tubs of gore.But no. The writers have squeezed every ounce of tension out of the story without abandoning those sparse assets. It answers interesting questions too. Suppose the bound, gagged, and hooded victim needs to use the toilet. One of the men brings her a bucket, but she signals frantically with her fingers -- number two. Can she "go" with some stranger watching her? Can't the stranger at least turn around? And when he does so, can't she whack him over the head with the empty bucket and grab his pistol? The answer is yes.Now the victim, Gemma Arterton, has the upper hand, but the second kidnapper may show up at any moment and -- well, what's a girl to do? Then, on top of that, the narrative gets more complicated, too complicated to explain. There are double crosses upon double crosses, so many that I forgot who was aligned with whom in the later intrigues.The script is fine for its genre, not poetic but effective. And the performances are of professional caliber. Gemma Arterton is attractive without being stunningly beautiful or so young as to invite the cheap sympathy we feel when a child is endangered. And she's no virgin either. She's wily as hell.In some ways the most sympathetic character is boyish Compston because he's the most naive. Everyone takes advantage of him despite (or because of) the fact that he's the only character who seems truly capable of love, even with reservations.The most impressive actor is Marsan. He's the authoritarian Loeb who orders Compston's Leopold around. And Marsan's appearance is striking. His forehead is slanted back and his features protrude at odd angles from his skull. He looks like he's wearing a fire plug on his shoulders.All of them prove themselves capable murder and, in the end, they've all demonstrated their capacity for taking the money and running away with it.It's a little like "Dial M For Murder," but more violent and less witty. None of the villains are nearly as suave and good-natured as Ray Milland. And the music here practically spells out "gravitas." There's not a smile in a cartload but it's precisely done.

In 2008, Gemma Arterton came to cinema-goers attention as a Bond girl when she played Srawberry Fields in "Quantum Of Solace". The following year, she took on a much more demanding and disturbing role as the eponymous Alice in this dark thriller filmed on a low budget in the Isle of Man. She acquits herself very well, showing that she is far from being just a pretty face. Her co- stars - Eddie Marsan and Martin Compston who play Alice's kidnappers - are equally convincing in a work that has a mere three roles.Considerable credit goes to J Blakeson who is both writer and director of this stylish work which is essentially wordless for the first ten minutes and simply gripping as the narrative unfolds with twist after twist. In 2014, the film was remade in Danish with the less clever title "Reckless".

This British thriller film is about Alice Creed who is kidnapped for ransom by two blokes( Vic and Danny), they take her to a flat with soundproof walls and tie her to a bed while they wait for the money from her father. The film is straight to the point.The film gives off a very tense atmosphere in the first 45 minutes or so as we see Vic and Danny overlooking Alice. Some of the scenes are uncomfortable to watch but of course that adds to the tension. Gemma Arterton gives a fantastic performance.I really liked the way this film was going but it took a turn for the worse just over half way through. There ended up being too many twists and turns and in the end it became too far fetched. It was very gripping when they kept it simple, just the 3 of them in the room. Silly decisions were made and all sorts of relationships were discussed and it just became unbelievable. It was too complex when it really didn't need to be.Overall it is a good watch but I feel it had potential to be an excellent film had they kept it simple.7/10.

But I didn't expect a good, tense film to break out. I figured this would just be some trash straight to DVD film, that I just skim through, laugh at the ridiculous stuff, see Gemma and call it a day.But right from the opening shot it was a lot better than I thought it'd be. It was tense and menacing and all without a word being spoken. It didn't get as ugly as I was afraid it would from the opening, but it got a lot more interesting. I kept thinking I knew what type of story they were telling and they kept surprising me.All 3 gave great performances, and I liked that it was only the 3 of them the whole time. Well written, well shot, well acted and I liked the ending...especially with the clever credit. It's much better than the sum of Gemma's bits, and that's saying a lot.