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Endgame

2004, Movie, 109 mins

Endgame: Review

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Writer-director Gary Wicks' feature-film debut is a familiar but polished variation on modern British gangster-movie conventions which, title notwithstanding, is in no way related to Samuel Beckett's Endgame. Brutal villain George Norris (Mark McGann) lives with his coldly stylish wife (Kate McKenzie) and son in a swank London neighborhood, but keeps a bachelor apartment for his trysts with doe-eyed hustler Tom (Daniel Newman). Norris, whose relationship with Tom shifts in the blink of an eye from cooing displays of saccharine affection to sexual brutality, also lends Tom out to various closeted businessmen, politicians and cops on the take, secretly taping their encounters for the purposes of future blackmail. Left alone much of the time, Tom strikes up a casual acquaintance with his downstairs neighbor, American bank trader Max Bergman (Corey Johnson), and accepts his invitation to dinner, though not without some trepidation. Tom enjoys a pleasant evening with Max and Max's wife, Nikke (Toni Barry), but Tom returns home to find Norris in a towering, jealous rage. In the ensuing fracas, Tom accidentally kills Norris and appeals to Nikke and Max for help. Against their better judgement, the couple agrees to drive Tom to the isolated farm cottage they own in Wales, where he can hide out while decided what to do next. Meanwhile, sadistic and deeply corrupt Inspector Dunston (John Benfield) investigates Norris' death with particularly vicious vigor. Not only did Dunston have shady dealings with Norris, but he sampled Tom's favors and immediately grasps the significance of Norris' closet full of alphabetized videotapes, especially the gap in the Ds. As Dunston moves stealthily closer, Max and Nikke's marriage is strained by her flirtation with the sexually uncertain Tom. Though it breaks no new ground Wicks' cynical thriller is always stylish and entertaining. The Tom-Nikke-Max triangle is weakened by Barry's awkward, unappealing performance as Nikke, but McGann's seething Norris is an electrifying presence whose malevolent influence lingers long after his death. leave a comment
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