Dead Man Down isn't deeply satisfying but is well filmed and performed - and proof you can make a workable New York thriller with a bunch of Europeans.

Suppose Armand Assante had played the mother, not as a father, as a mother. Suppose Isabelle Huppert had taken the Colin Farrell part. This may be no more than playful, but heaven knows Dead Man Down needs as much of that as it can get.

[Rapace] will be enough to send some to this urban thriller but the film will send them away disappointed.

J.H. Wyman's screenplay is strongly written and probably my favorite story of 2013 so far.