Butterfly on a wheel

Year of release : 2007

Run time : 1h35m

Genre : Thriller / Crime

Cast : Pierce Brosnan, Gerard Butler, Maria Bello, Nicholas Lea

The movie, known in the USA as Shattered, is based on the line “Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel” from Alexander Pope’s poem “Epistle to doctor Arbutnot”, meaning the punishment doesn’t fit the crime.

Neil seems to live the perfect life with his wife, Abby, and their daughter.

The movie opens with his wife who wakes up as she hears noises around to house, to discover that it’s Neil arranging the house for her birthday surprise.

He leaves for work, as one of her friends is coming to see her. Although it’s her birthday, Neil has a business trip planned for the weekend.

A man standing on the edge of a tall building is watching Neil going to work.

Neil works in advertising, and trying to help one of his team mates to get an add campaign he gets it, making it look like he did it on purpose.

 

Next morning, Neil and Abby talk about how the nanny who came to take care of their daughter looks too old. Neil says he has a weekend meeting with his boss, while Abby is celebrating her birthday without him. They leave together.

As they talk about their lives and how they used to live in different cities, a man gets up from their back seat, pointing a gun at them. He makes a phone call, giving the phone to Abby, and she seems to be talking to their daughter held hostage by the nanny.

The man claims he wants money, and sends them to the bank to get all the money out. Once in the bank, Neil wants to call the police but Abby stops him.

Asking to take the money out, Neil has a fit when he hears they need the bank’s manager’s signature, saying it’s their money and should be able to get it whenever they want. Abby sends him to the car, and she comes back later with the money. The man takes the money, sets it on fire, and throws the suitcase out the car window as they drive on a bridge.

The man asks him to stop at a restaurant where Neil usually dines with his clients.At the restaurant, the man asks for a rare steak, and sends them to get the money he needs for the meal! Abby sells the 2000 dollars bracelet Neil gave her for her birthday and he gives the clerk his watch, all for 300 dollars, although those were expensive items.

The man then sends Abby to deliver an envelope. The man drives Neil to the top of a parking lot to see his wife deliver the envelope. He tells him he knows Neil hacked the Magris Industries information and that is the proof of it. Based on what the man says, he seems to be having something personal against him as everything is aimed at him. He tells him he can call his wife and tell her not to give the envelope. When he does, the wife gives the envelope anyway, afraid to risk their daughter’s life.

Their next assignment is to deliver a box, and Neil refuses. But he still has to do it. While the man was gone to get the box, Neil went through his phone, and now calls the number, realizing it’s a hotel room. They go to the hotel (after opening the box and find it empty), and find out the nanny with their daughter are there. When they get there, the man waits for them there, while their daughter’s bunny is in the room.

As punishment, the man asks Abby to put on a red dress in front of him, and then takes her with him, while Neil has to figure out where they have gone.

The movie has a fresh idea, and I liked how it started, but after a while (at the red dress part), don’t know why, it kinda bored me. It caught me again, once they reached the place where Neil was supposed to meet his boss.

I liked how the movie was filmed, in the beginning the director uses mirrors and cool angles to take his shot. I also liked the colors.

If you pay attention to the details, at the beginning of the movie, you can figure out what it’s about. SPOILER the twist at the end explains why the wife was acting that way, didn’t want to call the cops, gave the envelope when she was told not to anymore..END OF SPOILER

The acting was good, but could have been better. Maria Bello can do better than this, I think she was asked to act this way, like someone who is pretending, and doesn’t give 100%. Gerard Butler doesn’t have much range but he was Ok.

The soundtrack was Ok, but could have been better.

The movie which seems to be relatively unknown to Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, received mixed reviews, and holds a 6.6 out of 10 rating on IMBD .

The movie has quite a few remakes, Indian movies like the 2010 Malayalam speaking movie Cocktail, Tamil speaking movie Athithi, and the Marathi speaking tv series “Guntata Hriday he”.

You can find the full movie (with Romanian subtitles) on the Ok.Ru platform.

Rating : Could have been a contender !