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Working as a manager on a construction site with a concrete square as its centrepiece, Ray (David Roberts) finds out that life is full of temptations. First there is the steamy affair with young Carla (Claire Van Der Boom) whose husband Greg (Anthony Hayes) dabbles with criminal enterprises. Then there is the bag of cash that Carla finds in the roof of her house. It is too easy for Ray to hire small time arsonist Billy (Joel Edgerton) to burn down her house so that he and Carla can leave their loveless marriages with a heap of cash, but a tragic turn of events puts his life into overdrive.
The film’s script underwent a great deal of surgery according to Joel Edgerton who worked on the dark thriller for 7 years (with Matt Dabner) before bringing his brother Nash on board to direct it. Using his extensive experience as a stunt performer, Nash added precision action sequences as Murphy’s Law (whatever can go wrong, will go wrong) comes into play for a really ordinary bloke whose life begins to unravel when ‘his dick points in the wrong direction’.
With preparations for Christmas adding an absurd backdrop, the luckless Ray stumbled from one catastrophe to another as he the hole he has made for himself gets bigger and bigger. You just hope that you don’t wake up one day and have the kind of week that Ray is having. This Australian film wouldn’t have had a large budget but the tight script and brilliantly staged action make this an edge-of-your-seat film that is totally believable.
Rated MA, directed by Nash Edgerton
