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Imperium

7/10

Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Toni Collette, Sam Trammell, Tracy Letts, Chris Sullivan, Nestor Carbonelli, Burn Gorman

Director: Daniel Ragussin

This might well have been called The Infiltrator, had not Bryan Cranston's new film got there first. This, however, is the better of the two, with an on-form Radcliffe as the nerdish FBI man suborned by agent Collette into infiltrating a white supremacy movement reported to be planning something big.

Getting in, posing as an Iraq war veteran, is comparatively easy, but it proves more difficult to discover exactly what the subversive movement is up to.

Naturally, Radcliffe lives in constant fear of his cover being blown, although some of his escapes from exposure do push the envelope of our belief rather hard. Director Ragussin does deserve credit, however, for sticking to the central drive of his narrative, allowing no romances, family matters or scenes at strip clubs to slow the direction in which the film is heading.

It's Radcliffe's movie from start to finish, while another Brit, the distinctive Gorman, pops up briefly as one of the conspirators. And, for all the slight lapses in credibility, you'll be kept hopping as whether the novice undercover agent survives alive.

David Quinlan

USA 2016. UK Distributor: Signature (LionsGate). Colour (unspecified).
108 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 1, Drugs 0, Swearing 3.

Review date: 19 Sep 2016