Jim seeks help from his broker, who says tough luck. Jim hires an attorney who takes $10,000 and does nothing. The assistant district attorney who promised to investigate does nothing.
In short order, Jim faces bankruptcy due to an inability pay his medical bills, the loss of his job due to the negative credit alerts on nonpayment, eviction, and the death of his wife at her own hand. Convinced that she's a burden, Rosie kills herself.
Rosie's death is the turning point. Jim ruminates for a period then hauls out his service issued rifle and goes to work. He shoots three of those personally responsible for his plight; one on the porch of his mansion while enjoying a rare wine, no doubt, in the company of a lovely woman, decades younger.
The culmination of the film takes place in the investment bank - brokerage office of Wall Street wizard Jeremy Stancroft. The firm is doing well after off loading their losses to the "little people." That win ends quickly and so does the film. No need to spoil the ending that includes a plot twist that promises more of the same from director Boll.
by YouTube
by YouTube
Use Boll wrote and directed this film. It's plodding but thorough with a step-by-step broad indictment of the various horrors the financial elite have handed out to millions of citizens. Baxford is like a modern day Job who quickly morphs into Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver. Job couldn't go gunning for God after all, but Baxford was, at some point, trained to kill.
John Heard does a fine job as the greedy investment banker. His unapologetic greed is well played and a nice set up that carries the action forward. Dominic Purcell is as good a choice as any for the role of the assault rifle avenger. Purcell played Lincoln Burroughs, wrongly imprisoned by the financial elite's shadow government in the epic series Prison Break.
Jim's wife is played with a tragic flair Erin Karpluck. The best friends played by Ed Furlong (American History X), Larry David, and Michael Pare couldn't be better buddies.
But, this is no buddy film. It's about one man's suffering and his choice to seek a violent solution to his problems on his own. There's no class warfare. In fact, Jim emerges into the killer he becomes through a solitary research process that unveils the corruptions of Wall Street and the big banks. There isn't even a hint about what the fraudsters have done to millions. It's all about Jim and his suffering.
Around the time of the Wall Street collapse, there were stories about Wall Streeters buying guns for self-protection from the masses they swindled. They'll probably be at gun shows soon loading up again. But, they have nothing to worry about. Didn't those well-funded studies show that films and television have little influence on real acts of violence? Weren't we told that there is no connection between what people see in a film and what they do in real life?
END
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