Good People

Stars: Kate Hudson, James Franco, Tom Wilkinson, Sam Spruell, Omar Sy, Anna Friel

Director: Henrik Ruben Genz

Struggling married couple Tom and Anna Wright (Franco, Hudson), Americans faced with foreclosure on their London home, first find their basement tenant dead, then discover a huge cache of cash stowed away in his ceiling - the ill-gotten gains he had stolen from his employers after the successful completion of a robbery.

Now you and I would either take the whole 220,000 pounds to the police, or swipe the odd 20,000 and hope that no one would notice. But no: they keep the lot - talk about danger money.

A leeringly aggressive crook whose brother was killed by the deceased during the robbery (Spruell - best thing in the film) is on their trail, to say nothing of his silky-smooth boss (Sy, from Intouchables) and a badraggled cop (Wilkinson) headed for retirement.

The direction is sticky, the situations only barely believable and much of the acting purely functional; all concerned, save Spruell, seem, appropriately in the context of the film, to be taking the money and running.

Even the action climax isn't very convincing, while poor Anna Friel has about two lines, leaving one to suspect that most of her part must have ended up on the cutting-room floor.

David Quinlan

USA/UK 2014. UK Distributor: Lionsgate. Colour (unspecified).
90 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.

Review date: 16 Aug 2015