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WAZ cast: Stellan Skarsgård, Melissa George, Selma Blair, Tom Hardy, and Ashley Walters director: Tom Shankland 100 minutes (18) 2007 widescreen ratio 1.85:1 Contender DVD Region 2 retail RATING: 6/10 reviewed by Gary McMahon |
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Back in the 1980s, there seemed to be a brief period when rape/ revenge films were the
latest hot property. Death Wish (1974) and its sequels probably started the ball
rolling, opening the door for films as diverse as Abel Ferrara's tour-de-force Angel
Of Vengeance (aka: Ms. 45) and the atrocious - in every sense of the word -
I Spit on Your Grave
(aka: Day Of The Woman). WAZ in many ways almost feels like a throwback to
those giddy days. The film uses the grainy washed-out look of David Fincher's
Se7en, and the
Saw films, and
attempts to find the social relevance that fires these movies. Unfortunately it fails on
both counts. Helen Westcott, a rookie cop (played by Melissa George) and her older, wiser partner Eddie Argo (Stellan Skarsgård) are drawn into a seedy murder investigation when bodies start turning up with parts of an algebraic equation carved into them (hence the W delta Z of the title). The revelations which follow are tawdry, contrived and really rather tasteless. Skarsgård sleepwalks through his role, while George once again shows that she's a fine, fiery actress who deserves much better. The wonderful Selma Blair drops by to act everyone else off the screen - her performance is so good that she practically embarrasses the rest of the film. WAZ tries hard to be a serious film about horrific issues, but it is too heavy-handed and exploitative to hold any dramatic weight and far too grim to be entertaining. A lighter touch might have transformed this into a great little exploitation film; a modicum of restraint could have helped it achieve more noble goals. As it stands, WAZ is stuck between a rock and a hard place, and at times is quite uncomfortable to watch - for all the wrong reasons.
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