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(2009)
Idris Elba as Derek Charles
It's easy to knock Steve Shill's thriller as a watered down Fatal Attraction knockoff, a fact that no one involved in the film really makes any bones about. But put genre formula cheesiness aside, and one sees the can't-miss pitch that Elba was thrown here and how he knocks it out of the park. Top billed lead? Check. Upstanding hero role? Check. Classy Hollywood leading man part for a man of color? Check. Major star as a leading lady? Check (Beyoncé Knowles). Proven commercial hook? Check. Familiar collaborators? Check (Rainforest Films). But even with so many things comfortably taken care of in place, Elba doesn't slack off and rest on merely looking the part, as he commits to selling--and succeeds--the emotional authenticity of the over-the-top theatrics as the well-meaning object of obsession for an unhinged co-worker. More than his more "classy" and acclaimed films and roles, I think his work in this film and its box office success (which, when given the slightest ounce of thought, is hardly as out-of-nowhere as so-called "expert" industry observers made it out to be), is when he started to make the Hollywood and entertainment establishment finally see him through a major leading man lens.
--Michael Dequina, September 6, 2011
Idris Elba as Derek Charles
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