Colin (Idris Elba) is a “malignant narcissist” who has spent the last five years in prison after being suspected of murdering five ex-girlfriends, but having only been convicted for an unrelated manslaughter.
After being denied parole, Colin escapes during his ride back to jail. Once free, he quickly finds his last ex-girlfriend, whom he feels deserves to die for not writing any letters to him while incarcerated.
When a car accident during a storm makes Colin an unintentional guest at the home of Terri (Taraji P. Henson), she must do all she can to defend herself and her two young children from a bad, bad man.
But there’s more to the story than meets the eye, as this particular home invasion is not a coincidence.
We say, “No Good Deed is a pretty tense thriller, unless you start thinking about it.”
TAYLOR: So, if you’re in the mood to see a woman get terrorized and fight back, this is the film for you. Just don’t expect it to make much sense. I feel a bit conned by No Good Deed because as I was watching it, despite it being a bit on the nose, I got sucked in and found palpable tension. Then, by the conclusion, I was rooting for Terri to win the day and protect her family. If No Good Deed has a noticeable selling feature, it’s that Terri is a strong female character that fights back every chance she gets. Yes, she’s the victim, but one with options. I left the theatre feeling I had witnessed something effective, but its effectiveness is tenuous and built upon faulty logic that I only realized later, after thinking about these character’s motivations.
HOWE: Well, it certainly was a roller-coaster of a ride with its ups and downs. I did enjoy about the first hour and 10 minutes of it, then it just repeated itself over and over again. By that I mean, Colin finds Terri and keeps her captive; Terri fights and escapes; Colin chases Terri and catches her again, and the merry go round keeps on turning. There are a few flaws in the movie that made me scratch my head, which is a pity. If the filmmakers had looked at it closer and made amends, it could have been a very good thriller.
TAYLOR: That’s the thing, audiences should be able to enjoy the film and have the characters motivations make sense, but in order to achieve the twist (that Mr. Howe and I can’t divulge without spoiling the movie,) information needs to be withheld. It is that information that causes the breakdown of the film. Combined with a ridiculously cornball ending, what you are left with is a taut film about a nasty home invasion that turns into a vendetta, for reasons that require the audience to fill in the blanks. It’s pretty easy to fill in those blanks, but we shouldn’t have to.
HOWE: I thought the performances were good, especially from Elba as the psychotic Colin. He did come across as Mr. Nice Guy, with a crazed wicked streak when things don’t go his way. The other thing that I did enjoy was the music. It was very tense and provided an eerie feeling of foreboding.
– Howe gives No Good Deed 2 golf trips out of 5.
– Taylor gives it 2.5 shovels to the face out of 5.
The film is currently showing at the Galaxy Cinemas in Vernon.
– Brian Taylor and Peter Howe are film reviewers out of Vernon, B.C. who write about new film releases Friday and Sunday.
