Jo Taylor’s blog

Tropico is minor community anywhere, USA, and Purloin (Nivola) has a scummy contract in a recycling plant. Conference Lissa (Witherspoon) is just about the on the other hand highlight in his life simply in the present climate, and he'd hoped that an bequest from his late father would be their ticket to somewhere else. No chance. The taxman has swallowed the lot, leaving Take to one's heels all too susceptible when pals at work state him of a plunder they're scenery up. What sounds take to no-risk turns into a nightmare with Nick left owing serious money to the heaviest man in town. There are surprises for coequal the practised fault-spotter, but the blear is far from an exercise in empty narrative mechanics: friendship, firmness, customs choices move events this way and that. Nivola gives a canny performance, while Witherspoon's sympathetic support and Brolin's seeming fall guy provide a persuasive foundation for all the slipperiness that follows. British director Barker keeps the cast believable but fabricates a noir-ish Edward Hopper backdrop around them, delivering a tantilising hyper-reality.