365 Days. 365 Films.

Gene Watson (Depp) is an accountant visiting Los Angeles on business with his daughter Lynn (Chase). Upon arriving at the train station he is approached by two sinister looking people pretending to be police officers, Smith (Walken) and Jones (Maffia). They force Watson and Lynn into a car where they hand Watson an envelope, telling him that he must kill the woman whose picture is inside the envelope in 90 minutes or less, or his daughter will be killed. The woman in the picture turns out to be the governor, so Watson spends his time trying to figure out a way out of the situation without anyone getting hurt, but everybody seems to be in on it…
I had no idea what this film was going to be about as it was another random recommendation from the internet, and since this blog only involves me watching films I have not seen before, it doesn’t really bother me what a film is about so I don’t bother doing prior research. However when the plot became clear – genre and plot were both a little hazy in the first ten minutes – I could tell that it was going to be a good film. This is enjoyable because there isn’t much to the plot, however they keep building on it and building on it to increase tension and emotion throughout, which is difficult to do without introducing new plot points.
Depp is fantastic, emotional and convincing and Walken is the perfect insane bad guy – a heavenly combination for a cleverly made thriller.