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Movie:		7.0
Picture:		5.0
Sound:		6.0
Extras:		3.0
Score:		7.0

Director(s):	Laurence Malkin
Writer(s):	Laurence Malkin, Chad Thumann
Starring:	Colm Meaney • Gina Torres • Laurence Fishburne • Ryan Phillipe • Said Taghmaoui • Touriya Haoud
Genre:	Drama • Thriller
Website:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0428541/
Release Date:	July 07, 2009
Rated:

List Price:	DVD - $18.99
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Whatever happened to Ryan Phillippe, anyway? Adolescent girls everywhere (myself included) had nothing but the highest hopes for him after the tacky teenage melodrama (though it didn't seem so at the time), Cruel Intentions. And hey, as it turns out, he's still a pretty good actor.

In Five Fingers, the aforementioned Phillippe plays Martijn, a young, idealistic Dutch pianist-slash-banker who travels to Morocco to start a charity program to help feed the hungry. Upon his arrival in the country he's promptly kidnapped by terrorists who hold him hostage and interrogate him regarding his intentions for coming to the country, physically punishing him whenever they believe he is withholding information. I won't say how, exactly, but I think you might be able to infer it from the title.

The film takes a little while to pick up, but once it does it's well worth it. At first it appeared to me as though Laurence Malkin was getting a little heavy-handed with his will to beat metaphor into the viewer's brain. See, the fact that Martijn and Ahmat, played by Laurence Fishburne, are engaged in a mental chess match isn't quite subtle enough; in order for us to really absorb the implications of such a standoff, replete with conflicting ideologies and differing world views, they have to be playing an actual game of chess! At least that's what the filmmakers would have us believe. The reality is that if this film went the minimalist route, with two clashing personalities having an involved philosophical debate in a single dark, barren room, it would probably serve for a much more compelling narrative. Though I did suppose the chess does give them something to do during the small pauses between lines of dialogue.

But as it turns out, the actual, physical game of chess is very much essential to the pushing forward of the plot. And thankfully, Malkin decided to abandon this device pretty early on in the film, and the rest of the tension stems from the interactions between Martijn and his captors.

What was most interesting were the intermittent moments of humanity that the seemingly heartless terrorists show towards their hostage in the most surprising times, such as the scene where Aicha, a female terrorist, gingerly bathes a soiled, dirty Martijn with great care. Even as they torture him, they still manage to treat him with a certain amount of respect. It's not to say that these people's actions should be condoned in any way, but it is nice to be shown fully fleshed out characters with real personalities, even if they are playing the villains.

As the story unfolds and reveals more and more incriminating information regarding Martijn's character, the audience themselves begin to feel troubled and conflicted. It becomes somewhat of a struggle to decide who to trust, and that's what really drives the film. To say that the camerawork or art direction is particularly striking or memorable would be a falsity, but I sense that it probably wasn't the filmmakers' top priority. Indeed, the narrative and the way in which it unfolds -- the pacing, the tautness, the back-and-forth banter -- is really what's at the heart of Five Fingers.

It should be noted that the performances in this film are spot on. Laurence Fishburne is downright terrifying as the resolutely cruel terrorist -- and his accent is actually very convincing. Phillippe sometimes tends to go the route of overacting and unfortunately his Dutch accent is rather laughable, rivaling that of Leonardo DiCaprio's mishmash Boston-ish enunciation in The Departed, but hey, at least you can tell he's trying. Similarly, Phillippe occasionally lapses in and out of his faux inflection, especially when his performance calls for a certain amount of emotional intensity. And, even more similarly, he does a pretty solid job in his role, and manages to show a surprising amount of range, so it's not all bad.

The film also contains a pretty surprising twist at the end, though it feels a little trite; then again, for me it always tends to feel that way when the entire premise of a film has been set up around a trick ending, like the unexpected punch-line to an overall lukewarm joke. Still, Five Fingers manages to toy with the audience's expectations in a sly manner, challenging stereotypes and pre-established views of what a terrorist looks like. Hopefully I haven't said too much.

DVD Bonus Features

There's a mini-doc about the making of the film entitled "Endgame: Inside Five Fingers" (sounds icky, doesn't it?), wherein you can watch the actors state the obvious about the film you've just watched. There's also a Trivia Track option, which, if enabled, allows you to watch the film in a Pop-Up Video-esque format, if you're into that sort of thing.