Review: No Good Deed

PHOTO CREDIT: OFFICIAL MOVIE CLIP

BY HANNAH RAMESAR

Directed by Sam Miller, No Good Deed uses both the brutality of Colin Evans (Idris Elba) combined with the female lead, Terri Granger (Taraji P. Henson), to provide a vivid film. With such a killer cast, it is a shame the movie did not yield more.

Evans is denied parole five years into serving a prison term for manslaughter, having killed a man and being suspected of killing five women. He escapes while being returned to prison, shooting a guard and driver in the process. After stalking and killing his former fiancé in Atlanta, Evans crashes his van in a storm and finds himself at Granger’s doorstep. From there, the “thriller” ensues and the audience is taken on a less than thrilling roller-coaster ride.

The movie operated as a conventional “home-invasion thriller” and failed to give the audience an insight into the mind of a malignant narcissist. Much of the “wait” throughout the movie tended to lean more towards boredom than suspense, as the audience “hung on to the edge of their seat” to see what Henson would do next. Even the final-act “twist” was banal and expected, considering flashbacks to an earlier, violent encounter.

The flashbacks interrupt the actors’ flow and the transparency of Elba’s character’s psychotic nature leaves almost no mystery and undermines any accumulation of suspense. No Good Deed is a compilation of obvious jolts and creates no layers to the madness of the main character. With the talent present on that set, it is unfortunate that it was wasted.