With a great cast and the final film of multi-award winning director Michael Apted, Unlocked sadly promised more than it delivered in its solid, routine espionage story.
Guilt at failing to prevent a terrorist bombing in Paris several years earlier, specialist CIA interrogator Alice Racine (Noomi Rapace) finds a degree of solace as a caseworker based in East London. Providing information to MI5 unit leader Emily Knowles (Toni Collette) has seen a strong rapport develop between the two women. But the threat of biological attack sees Racine lured back into the field, made the more urgent by the attempt on her life and the killing of friend and former boss, Eric Lasch (Michael Douglas).
Plenty of twists and turns as double crossing seems to be the order of the day. Racine stays ahead of the game – just – but it takes all her wits to do so as she’s not too sure who to trust. It’s engaging enough in its thrills but the lack of tension ultimately leaves a ‘so-what’ aftertaste – and the knowledge that the set up for the sequel just ain’t gonna happen.
Rating: 52%
Director: Michael Apted (Coal Miner’s Daughter, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader)
Writer: Peter O’Brien
Main cast: Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Prometheus), Orlando Bloom (The Lord of the Rings, Troy), Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense, Nightmare Alley)