The Movie:

Directed and co-written by Laurence Malkin, Five Fingers is an interesting and politically charged thriller that, for lack of a better term, seems to have been ripped from today's headlines. With all of the turmoil over recent CIA interrogation tactics having been big news over the last couple of months, the timing of this release is interesting when you consider the content and subject matter of the film.

The movie revolves around a Dutch pianist named Martijn (Ryan Phillippe) who, after some coercion from his Moroccan girlfriend, Saadia (Touriya Haoud), decides to head to Morocco where he intends to start a program meant to feed the sizeable population of starving children. In theory, this sounds like a great idea and Martijn appears to be quite the humanitarian but upon his arrival in Rabat he and his guiade, Gavin (Colm Meaney), are quite surprisingly abducted and drugged with a tranquilizer.

When the drugs start to wear off, Martijn wakes up and finds himself tied to a chair. His captor is a Muslim named Ahmat (Lawrence Fishburne) who doesn't believe that Martijn is in Morocco to feed starving children at all and so he sets about using some rather nefarious means of interrogation to try and pull the truth out of him - is he really a Dutch pianist? What is he really doing in Morocco? Where did the money for his charity program come from? None of the answers are what you expect as the captor and captive engage in a battle of wills with each party trying to play the other.

To really get the most out of this clever film you've got to be patient. Watch this one when you're in the mood for a slow burn as the build-up does take a while, and while the pay-off is definitely worth it, the movie takes its time getting there. Primarily a dialogue based picture, this isn't an action movie, and the violence, while very hard hitting, is more implied than directly shown. With that warning out of the way, Five Fingers is pretty interesting stuff. Part social commentary, part political thriller, it's a film that really makes you think about the reasoning behind the use of torture, whether its merited or not, and how effective it really is.

Key to the movie's success are the two lead performances and thankfully Phillippe and Fishburne both deliver and are quite convincing in their roles. The film doesn't play in to typical racial stereotypes with Fishburne's character or with his accomplices (one of whom is well played by Gina Torres of Serenity fame) and rather than portray all involved as one dimensional plot devices, the characters are given some legitimate personality and development.

Whether you agree with its message or not, Five Fingers as a refreshingly intelligent and relatively gripping thriller that hooks you and pulls you in until the finale. You might see the twist coming, you might not, but it's so well played that even if you do you're still going to want to see how it resolves itself. If nothing else, it makes you think though and that's never a bad thing. It's a film that toys with your potentially pre-determined sense of sympathy and understanding and forces you to reevaluate those choices, not by asking you to feel for one party or the other but by asking you if you should feel for either one without making any blanket condemnations.

The Video:

Five Fingers looks pretty good in this 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. There are a few scenes where the colors look a little bit bleached out but the movie's color scheme runs towards the hot side more often than not so this isn't really unexpected. Skin tones look pretty decent, showing a certain liveliness while black levels stay strong showing only a couple of sporadic instances of mpeg compression. There isn't any heavy edge enhancement to note nor is there much in the way of print damage to complain about and all in all, Lionsgate has done a fine job in the visuals department of this release.

The Audio:

The English language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound track is well constructed with some nice rear channel action and surround usage helping to keep us involved. The more intense scenes have more activity than some of the dialogue based scenes but that's not a bad thing. The score sounds good, at times sounding quite multi-layered, while dialogue remains pretty crisp throughout the movie. Optional subtitles are provided in English and Spanish and an optional English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track is also included.

The Extras:

Lionsgate has supplied two extras for this release, the first of which is a brief featurette entitled Endgame: Inside Five Fingers (11:15) that demonstrates the cast's commitment to trying to get this rather complex material right and which includes some interesting on set footage. Aside from that, there's a rather obtuse trivia track included that hands out completely unnecessary information as the film plays out and that feels like someone's strange idea of a joke. Animated menus and chapter stops are included. Trailers for a few other Lionsgate releases are also found on the DVD.

Overall:

A tense hour and a half of cat and mouse games, Five Fingers is definitely worth checking out thanks to a great twist and two excellent performances. Lionsgate's DVD looks and sounds fine and even if there isn't too much here in the way of extra features to sink your teeth into, the film itself is strong enough that we can overlook that. Recommended.

Ian lives in NYC with his wife where he writes for DVD Talk, runs Rock! Shock! Pop!. He likes NYC a lot, even if it is expensive and loud.