Martin Luther King: tough act to follow. After David Oyelowo’s commanding Selma turn, here’s an unpersuasive attempt to bolster the actor’s multiplex profile: a threadbare based-on-true-events thriller that unpacks, in utterly functional manner, the mystery of Brian Nichols, an escaped convict driven to take recovering addict Kate Mara hostage. TV veteran Jerry Jameson’s sluggish direction becomes no more animated once the cops arrive; everyone’s left sitting around waiting for revelation or redemption, while the uninflected quotation of religiose self-help guru Rick Warren reaches out towards the lucrative faith-movie demographic. The actors are committed – Mara, generally waif-like, appears frail indeed – but there’s barely anything worth committing to.
