Seeking Justice (2011)

Directed by: Roger Donaldson | 105 minutes | action, drama, thriller | Actors: Nicolas Cage, Guy Pearce, January Jones, Jennifer Carpenter, Harold Perrineau, Xander Berkeley, IronE Singleton, Monica Acosta, Joe Chrest, JD Evermore, David Jensen, Donna Duplantier, Dikran Tulaine, Mike Pniewski, Jason Davis

What do you do when you accidentally find out that the city you live in is oppressed by a corrupt gang and no one, from the police to seemingly ordinary citizens, can be trusted? The average person will probably try to get their hands off it and most of all not want to get too involved in all these problems and complicated matters. Not Will Gerard, an apparently innocent English teacher who finds himself in this complex situation in the film ‘Seeking Justice’. He decides not to run away and take his responsibility as a citizen to get to the bottom of the disaster, even though his own life is in danger.

In ‘Seeking Justice’ Nicolas Cage (who appears in a cinema film almost every month in the first half of 2012) plays the character of Will Gerard. The English teacher at a New Orleans high school lives happily with his wife Laura (January Jones). However, this carefree life comes to an abrupt end when Laura is brutally raped and molested one evening. Not long after, the deeply concerned Will comes into contact with one Simon (Guy Pearce). Simon is from an unofficial organization that stands up for the victims of violence in the city. He proposes to Will to have the perpetrator (who is still a fugitive at the time) murdered and Will decides to accept this offer. In return, Will has to give something small in return for the organization in the future. When he finally has to actually give something in return, the company turns out not to be as good as they claim and Will unwittingly becomes more and more involved in the corrupt institution.

There’s really nothing wrong with this story at all. At first it makes for an almost surprisingly interesting thriller. The slightly mysterious atmosphere that surrounds Simon’s organization – and the character of that same Simon himself – contributes to this, because you don’t really know who or what is behind it. Nicolas Cage initially manages to portray a convincing role of a man who clearly wants nothing to do with the organization. He’s just a simple teacher and definitely not a criminal. He becomes increasingly frustrated when he finds out that he cannot just shake off the organization.

Things only really go wrong with ‘Seeking Justice’ when Will ends up having to kill a journalist on Simon’s behalf. Because where ‘Seeking Justice’ convinces as a thriller, it is from this moment that it suddenly appears as an action film. As a result, we get to see familiar and unconvincing chases and shootings. Also the transformation Will goes through, from antihero to an action hero who single-handedly tries to save all of New Orleans, is very unbelievable and based on nothing. Wild car chases, shootings and undercover investigations, nothing suddenly seems too much or too difficult for Will. The film tries to pretend to be something it clearly isn’t. That is unfortunate and, above all, unnecessary. With recent films like ‘Contraband’, ‘Safe House’ and ‘Man on a Ledge’ enough mediocre action thrillers have appeared in recent months and ‘Seeking Justice’ fits right into this list. What started out so promising, is fading like a candle. In terms of level, you can now confidently refer to ‘Seeking Justice’ as a ‘typical Nicolas Cage film’.