This has to be the worst example yet of the Netflix gazillions buying a cast that looks great on paper, but that delivers badly on screen. It isn't necessarily their fault - the writing is as incoherent as it is facile and the direction is all over the shop. There are simultaneous threads to the story (journalist Anne Hathaway "Elena" ends up in Central America getting drawn into a story of US government/agency duplicity and espionage that she was meant to be there to report on, basically) that simply don't tie up - we have no context into which we can immerse ourselves! Ben Affleck can't need the cash this badly and though Toby Jones did make me smile; I'm not sure he was meant to. It's a decent enough book, so what happened with this poor adaptation to screenplay is anyone's guess, but please can we have more emphasis on the quality of the story and dialogue to make the A-list cast worth their money next time?

The last thing the world wanted was another awkward failure for Netflix, yet here it arrives. This is a movie with a star-struck cast and a nonsensical plot.

Script: 1

The plot takes a while to get going, presenting a lot of exposition that feels more or less unrelated to the rest of the narrative. The political depth if the story is also so strongly attached to the US that it can feel somewhat distancing for non-American audiences.

The script fails to present an end-goal for the plot and a means to reach that goal. There seem to be ideas at play that never lead anywhere and with such a clouded plot it's difficult to fully understand the story.

The basic plot threads could have formed all kinds of interesting lots, but in this film, they don't form anything else than a confusing and incoherent ball of tangled spring. There's very little to the film other than pointless dialogues, expositionary scenes, Anne Hathaway posing and some supposed twists at the end that don't make any sense because there's no actual build-up to the climax.

I don't know if the original novel suffers from the same problems, it if this is just a terrible adaptation, but it just doesn't work. It's awkward for the actors, for the director and Netflix.

Main cast: 5

Anne Hathaway is fine if a little bland at times. She reaches some deeper emotional levels, presenting both a harder and a softer side, but it's mostly a pretty straightforward performance.

In all honesty, though, this film has a pretty solid cast that is completely wasted with material that won't allow them to utilize their talents.

Supporting cast: 4

Willem Dafoe is acting Willem Dafoe and Been Affleck is criminally underused throughout most of the film. That's all you need to know.

Protagonist & antagonist: 4

Elena is something of an independent woman, whose independence doesn't come across very well.

I really can't say if this movie has any villains and who or what would be considered a villain. This is down to the movie failing to decide what it wants to be.

Production: 5

The directing is pretty solid even if the editing makes some parts of the story even more difficult to follow. Overall the directing or cinematography isn't interesting enough to save this film. I didn't even realize this film was set in the past until ten it fifteen minutes into the film.

Post-production: 4

There's barely any music and the little there is doesn't improve the movie one little bit.

Atmosphere: 1

This films biggest problem if the blatant lack of variation in tempo and atmosphere. When things start to turn interesting or when the speed is ranked up a little, the film immediately shifts focus to something else. There's a sense of build-up that never really reaches its climax. It's like the film doesn't know what kind of movie it wants to be.

Pacing: 1

The overall pace is low, and with a lack of emotional variation and only slight changes in speed, the movie feels longer than it should.

Expectations: 0

The trailers promised some kind of politically charged thriller. The actual film is something completely different, but I don't know what.

Replay value: 0

I regret watching this once and I certainly won't return to it again. This is one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time.

Score: 25/120