FILM: Colonia
CAST: Emma Watson, Daniel Brühl, Michael Nyqvist, Richenda Carey
DIRECTION: Florian Gallenberger


A thriller, Colonia revolves around a young couple who are caught up in the 1973 Chilean military coup, when General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the leftist Allende government. The event launched a period of harsh repression during which thousands of people were “disappeared”, and torture and murder of suspected dissidents was common. 
One of the dictator’s favourite places for those interrogations was a remote compound occupied BY a shadowy religious cult with reported neo-Nazi leanings, known as Colonia Dignidad (Dignity Colony), whose leader Paul Schafer was an influential supporter of Pinochet.
This is real history and it sounds like a great premise for a gripping historical/political drama but Colonia fails to capitalise on that potential. Instead, we get a fitful thriller that focuses more on a romance between the lead characters and less on the history. 
With a limp script and indifferent direction by Florian Gallenberger (who co-wrote the script), the film makes little use of either its talented cast or the inherent drama of the time and setting.
Emma Watson plays Lena, a flight attendant who is a regular on the Chile to Germany flights. Her German boyfriend Daniel (Daniel Bruhl), a photographer and activist, recently moved to Chile to work with the Allende campaign. 
His elation at the election of Allende quickly turns to panic, after the military coup and its subsequent rounding up of Allende officials and supporters. 
Tipped off that police are coming to arrest him, the couple sneak out of Daniel’s apartment but are captured anyway. Daniel is taken away in a van with a unique insignia on its side, which Lena eventually learns belongs to Colonia Dignidad, a mysterious cult from which members never return once they join. 
Nonetheless, when no one else will help, Lena joins the cult with hopes of finding and freeing Daniel. Her introduction to the cult includes meeting its founder and leader, Paul Schafer (a very scary Michael Nyqvist), who is known in the colony as “Pius”.
The film starts well, with a nice thriller buzz and romantic chemistry between the leads, but fizzles almost as soon as Lena enters the Colonia compound. After being captured Daniel is tortured but is later released into the compound population when his captors think he is brain-damaged. The thriller tension dissipates after Lena’s very edgy entry interview with its chilling leader, who comes across as a mix of psychotherapist and madman, an unsettling combination. Nyqvist’s scene with Watson is frightening but as she settles into to the hard, oppressive life in the cult, the energy drains out of the film.
But when the couple do find each other and plan an escape, at least the film returns to its thriller side and finds some energy. Even then it seems more conventional that one might wish. —  CM


Appealing story idea


FILM: Mr Right
CAST: Anna Kendrick, Sam Rockwell, Tim Roth, Anson Mount 
DIRECTION: Paco Cabezas


After her latest boyfriend cheats on her, unlucky-in-love Martha (Anna Kendrick) falls for an oddly-principled hit man (Sam Rockwell) who has decided to kill anyone who hires him to commit murder. While Martha believes she’s finally found the perfect guy, their romance is threatened by an FBI agent (Tim Roth) who’s hunting her new beau. 
Written by Max Landis and directed by Paco Cabezas, Mr Right made its world premiere at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.
There are some characters who benefit from the film revelling in the kitsch of contract killing. Roth plays one of the bosses who is trying to kill Francis, while RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan (G.I. Joe: Retaliation) plays Shotgun Steve, a guy who has some skills that Francis respects, and the two almost function as friendly peers. 
Mr Right was a nice story in idea, but just not up to the execution of it, a frustrating and fatal decision for those involved. But Rockwell’s performance is likeable. — RK


Grey and brooding


FILM: Altered Minds
CAST: Judd Hirsch, Ryan O’Nan, C S Lee, Jaime Ray Newman
DIRECTION: Michael Z Wechsler


Director Michael Z Wechsler, making his feature debut after working in TV and shorts, crafts an appropriately grey and brooding atmosphere in the dysfunctional-family drama Altered Minds.
Judd Hirsch is Dr Nathaniel Shellner, a renowned psychiatrist who did secret work for the CIA. One of his three adult adopted children, Tommy (Ryan O’Nan, Ray Donovan), is convinced his father performed unspeakable mental experiments on him, though he can’t remember.
The doctor’s three other adult children — two of whom are also adopted — think Tommy is going off the deep end, but evidence begins to pile up to the contrary during a particularly stormy family dinner. Is their father a monster or a man?
If the resolution isn’t quite as satisfying as either the build-up or the performances by the likes of Dexter’s C S Lee, it’s still a well-made thriller. —  CD


DVDs courtesy: 
Saqr Entertainment Stores, Doha