Pursued (2004)

A fast rising hi tech executive must protect his career and family from the ruthless tactics of a homicidal corporate headhunter.

Director:

Kristoffer Tabori

Writer:

Maggie April

Stars:

Christian Slater, Gil Bellows, Estella Warren

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Christian Slater	...	Vincent Palmer
Gil Bellows	...	Ben Keats
Estella Warren	...	Emily Keats
Michael Clarke Duncan	...	Franklin
Conchita Campbell	...	Alison Keats
Kevin McNulty	...	John Blakely
Tyler Labine	...	Wade Steiner
Sarah Strange	...	Petra Ghirov
Chelah Horsdal	...	Sharon
Saul Rubinek	...	Dexter O'Neil
Scott Hylands	...	Robert Langford
Camille Mitchell	...	Jen (Real Esate Agent)
Candus Churchill	...	Nurse
Kirsten Robek	...	Sherry
Enid-Raye Adams	...	Manager

Storyline

Wall Street's leading headhunter Vincent Palmer isn't just extremely good in finding the ideal executives for corporate top jobs and offering them a deal hard to resist. His special knack is making them sign even if they really don't want to. Such a hard nut is Benjamin 'Ben' Keats, who invented a brilliant persons tracking device and is committed to his partners and staff to use it to launch their firm VizTrack on the stock exchange. Vincent pulls all seductive stops with Ben, his wife and daughter, in vain. Then he hints even murder is in his repertoire. Ben checks out that's true but decides ti fight back.

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Plot Keywords:

poison | false identity | electrocution | blackmail | fall | 

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Taglines:

The executive headhunter with a killer instict.

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some violence

Details

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 September 2006 (Kuwait)

Also Known As:

Fejvadászat

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$5,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Andrew Stevens Entertainment, Artisan Entertainment, Insight Film Studios

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jeff Celentano was attached to direct at one point with Val Kilmer attached to star. Celentano said it was one of the best projects he'd been involved with. After Kilmer abruptly left the project, it fell apart and went through several subsequent rewrites.

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Goofs

In the end credits, Emily Keats is mistakenly called Laura Keats.

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Quotes

Vincent Palmer: Now, I am through negotiating with you, okay? When I leave here your little horse-riding twit of a daughter is finished. You will never see her again... then I go play housey with your little wifey. What do you think of that? I am through fucking around with you!

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Soundtracks

Free For Now
Composed by B. Taylor, M. Lloyd and J. Caro

User Reviews

Corporate Crooks

I am going to disagree with every other person who seems to have commented on this film. The worst thing about it is Christian Slater, who plays what I like to think of as a "Garden Variety Hollywood Psycho". Think Bettlejuice with a better complexion in an Armani suit or Hannibal Lecter on a diet of espresso rather than Fava beans. Slater's character Vincent chews the scenery shamelessly and seems to have the omniscient information that these psychos always seem to have. I do agree that Gil Bellows is largely an empty cipher in the center of the movie, he's basically playing the same troubled weak guy he played in Ally McBeal. The only time he comes to life is when he's attacking Slater's character.

As Bellow's wife Estella Warren does her usual decent job, playing a woman confused by her husband's behavior, although the smart woman she seems to be would have seen through Vincent in about 5 minutes. She also needs to work on that anxious look she perfected in Planet of the Apes and uses as her predominant expression throughout most of this film. Still this movie does establish one thing. If Angelina Jolie has the finest lower lip in Hollywood, Estella warren definitely has the mosy sensuous upper lip. There is one scene where Warren comforts her PlanetOTA co-star Michael Clark Duncan, who plays, of all things, a venture capitalist.

Unfortunately all this scene did for me was to think what a great General Thade (another classic Hollywood Psycho) Christian Slater could have been.

The continuity in this film seems odd. Key scenes of exposition, especially between the husband and wife, are missing. The wife appears to change her opinions about her husband and what is going on without ever having a scene where she realizes that Vincent is dangerous and her husband isn't crazy. There are also scenes of high tension with no payoffs. I especially would have liked a scene that wraps up how the situation with Vincent was resolved and whether the crooked cop got taken down. All we get is Vincent dies and Billy, er Benji's company becomes a success with no explanation how or why. I suspect that the filmmakers were trying to make the standard 90 minute film and cut out too much in their effort to meet this demand.

To conclude, if you like Hollywood Psychos and their near invincibility you will probably enjoy this film. If on the other hand you are bothered by bad editing and odd inexplicable motivations on the part of major characters you should probably save your money. On the other hand this is still a better movie than Stra Wars I or the Fantastic 4.