Academy award winning director Sydney Pollack, academy award winning actor Sean Penn, academy award winning actress Nicole Kidman. what happens when u throw these names together?

to me it symbolises a formula, a kind of publicity itself, a method of getting people to go to the cinemas without even knowing what the movie is about. and that's what i did, walking in with a fairly high level of expectation.

but... (haha, do you start to feel the negativeness? if you do, you're tricked) expecting a very dark political plot, the movie turned out to be fairly enjoyable and not as dark as the name Sydney Pollack promised the movie to be. the plot was quite good in portraying the helplessness and situation where by the two lead characters Silvia (Nicole Kidman) and Keller (Sean Penn) went thru, bringing in fictitious village customs to add on to the theme of revenge.

the acting by the two lead characters were powerhouse, subtle and not over-the-top. the directing was done in a fairly relaxed manner in the beginning, contrasting the moods very drastically as the pace of the movie got faster and the plot thickened. this is not a movie where u expect a lot of action, but you do get a lot of drama and emotional scenes, done in a simple manner that it all felt very real and very current.

it's not a must watch if you're really into these kind of political movies, but it is still a very polished movie that lives up to its expectations.

JOHNZZON'S RATING: [*** (of 5)]