Shade

Stuart Townsend, Gabriel Byrne, Thandie Newton, Jamie Foxx, Melanie Griffith, Sylvester Stallone. Damien Nieman, writer/director. RKO Pictures, 2004.

Excellently written thriller - what I like about the writing is that the characters are well-developed without much overt characterisation - most of the character development is through their conversations between each other and not through a series of "flashbacks" (except for the Stallone character - but that one is visually stunning and was much better handled visually than through the dialogue, such as the others)

Plus, good effect played to the non-linear plot, jumping back and forth through the days' events in order to reveal or enhance what we had known before, using that in order to give the viewer a much "broader" grasp as to what was truly happening.

This is a movie about card players, and therefore, of course, nothing is really what it seems and alliances shift with every new deal of a hand. [Oooh! Sounds like I'm writing blurbs now!] But it's extremely entertaining and ultimately satisfying. I have to admit the final card game was tense as anything I've ever seen, and I thought to myself that if I was this tense, rooting for the characters, then the script and the presentation had done its job: to draw me in to the story with characters I liked (through good dialogue) enough to make me care truly about the outcome. Man, I was sweating as they were laying down those cards!

Dam'fine movie! Check it out!

VG