Be It Ever So Humble ~ Movie Review of ‘Safe House’

Safe House is a good thriller that will stick with you long after seeing it.  Ryan Reynolds plays Matt Weston a CIA agent stationed in Cape Town, South Africa assigned as a “housekeeper” for a safe house located in the city.   He is making due until the time when he can be transferred to another position.  However Weston is worried that his career is stalling out and so he calls mentor/boss David Barlow (Brendon Gleeson) in order to keep himself on the man’s radar.  Things aren’t that bad because the scenery of Cape Town is beautiful (afterwards you will want to book a flight) and his French girlfriend adores him.  In the meantime he bides his hours bouncing a ball against a wall while waiting for a CIA sponsored guest to check in.  Then one day Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) shows up.

 

                While Weston was frittering away most of his day, Frost, a former CIA super agent, made a deal with a MI6 agent for a confidential file.  Unfortunately things didn’t go down as planned and Frost surrenders himself thus requiring a safe house so that an extraction team can find out where he hid the file and what was in it.  That is when all hell breaks loose.  From there Weston and Frost are pitted as both enemies and allies. 

 

                I loved Safe House.  The acting was top notch and the location of South Africa felt very fresh in terms of the usual clock and dagger movie environment.  Although the plot is predictable at times it still didn’t feel overly insulting when everything came to the inevitable conclusion.  Suffice to say the audience rooted for both men although both getting what they want appears to be at cross purposes.  Besides the before mentioned actors the film also stars Sam Shepard, Robert Patrick, and Vera Farmiga.

 

                      Safe House is a good film for a date night or a family movie night if you have older children (it is rated R, however the violence isn’t anything most audiences haven’t already seen).  I think it will play well on DVD or cable.         

 

                Happy Viewing!

 

Westerfield © 2012