British actress Gemma Arterton may not speak with the same smoky, feline allure of Angelina Jolie.
She may not have trounced bad guys in big action pics like "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" or "Mr. & Mrs. Smith."
But there's something about the way this raven-haired 24-year-old picks up a gun in the new thriller "The Disappearance of Alice Creed" and stares down its cold, steel barrel.
Pure, focused rage flickers across her ice blue eyes.
Those luscious, pouty lips harden into a scowl as she cocks back the trigger and steels herself to shoot and kill.
For that one fleeting instant, and a few more like them, Arterton electrifies the screen as the kidnapped hostage Alice Creed.
But make no mistake: this woman is no victim.
The second an opening presents, Alice confronts her criminals to stay alive.
She uses her wits and beats these goons at their game.
At every turn, Arterton tosses herself into the brutal physicality of this role and makes us buy it.
Does this gem in the rough sound like the next Angelina?
My bet is a stone cold yes.
鈥楢lice Creed' an auspicious first for writer-director J Blakeson
This taut, economical thriller is a golden calling card for first-time director J Blakeson.
Right from the get-go, Blakeson delivers a swerving, edgy, psychological drama that makes moviegoers wonder who the real captor is here and who is the victim.
The story begins as two ex-cons (Martin Compston, Eddie Marsan) embark on a strange series of errands.
They go to the hardware store and buy hammers and duct tape.
They line the inside of a van with good, sturdy plastic -- the kind that catches every splatter of blood, just in case.
They even test the spring on a nice, new bed before they drag it into an apartment decorated with blood-red walls and little more.
The stage is set for something terrible. For what, exactly, we can only guess.
Then Blakeson reveals their game.
The men kidnap college-girl Alice, drag her kicking and screaming into the well-secured apartment and hold her for ransom.
Tearful, fear-crazed Alice struggles to no avail as the hooded men handcuff her to the bed, strip her and snap pictures to email to her wealthy father.
The scene is disturbing. But what happens afterward turns these first tense moments into a three-character cat-and-mouse game where nothing is at is appears to be.
Twenty-one-year-old Scottish actor Compston (Danny) plays the role of baby-faced hustler with mercenary glee.
You can almost feel a knife's blade graze over your wrists as this crook smiles at his partner and new money ticket.
"Happy-Go-Lucky" actor Marsan, 41, makes your blood curl and your heart break as the gruff, complicated mastermind Vic.
Yet Arterton steals the real prize here. "The Disappearance of Alice Creed" may be a grungy, low-budget thriller. But it should open some big, golden doors for this new gem.
Three stars out of four.
