“Avarice”
Movie Review
As Australian thriller Avarice opens,
Kate Matthews, played by Gillian Alexy, isn't living her best life. Her husband
Ash, played by Luke Ford, spends too much time on his job, which takes a toll
on their marriage. Daughter Sarah is a normal teenager, which is more than Kate
can handle. Worse, the stress from this caused her to miss an easy shot and
finish second in a local archery competition.
She’s even less amused when Ash takes
a call from the office on what is supposed to be their vacation to tell him
they just closed a big deal. And that no one can get a hold of Tom played by Nick
Atkinson. We find out why they can't, as Kate and her family are soon kidnapped
by Reid and Kane, forcing Ash to use his knowledge of the banking industry to
steal a lot of money for them. Ten million dollars will be transferred to
exactly three accounts. He has three hours.
Director John V. Soto and co-writers
Andrew Slattery, Adam Enslow and Dan Miller have come up with a fairly simple
thriller that sees Kate use her archery skills to eliminate Reed, Kane and
their mercenaries.
It can actually be quite simple sometimes.
At the beginning of Avarice, we see Kate telling her therapist how difficult
Sarah is, but the worst part is Sarah texting her mom saying she doesn't care.
Kate should consider herself lucky if her behavior is bad. Likewise, the hours
at Ash's office are a problem, but they live in a big expensive house, and as
far as the viewer can tell, Kate is a stay-at-home mom.
So those long hours reflect in their
lifestyle. Without this background, Kate seems even more whiny and merciless
than she did in Averice's first act. We really needed to see Sarah doing
something concerning or a reason to suspect Ash is doing worse than missing her
tournaments because he has to be at the office.
Fortunately, once Reed and Kane show
up, Averice doesn't care because the villains are so pure evil that the
important thing is that they get killed as soon as possible. The script is
lively as Kate has to take a fist-pumping bow. The cast is a bit small, but
Kate's Arrows has enough goals to keep it interesting without being
unbelievable.
It's all presented in a crisp,
efficient way, uncomplicated by layers and double-crosses within the plots,
which aren't as surprising as the filmmakers think. There are only two twists
in Avarice, one of which is pretty obvious. The filmmakers provided a plot to
hang the action on and that was about it.
As a result, while it's nothing
extraordinary, Avarice is a decent action thriller that should keep the
audience in the theater for an hour and a half. Gillian Alexy and Alexandra
Nell gave excellent performances. The end result is predictable. A perfectly
watchable Australian thriller.
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