Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Yazmin Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

calicut110 This is a decent film. Riz Ahmed shows he's worthy of a lead role. He's definitely the best actor in the film. The writing has a few issues and the sub plot feels a little over worked but it's definitley entertaining.

Ian This has Noir written all over it and I desperately wanted to give a it a 10 but, as it progressed, its shortcoming were revealed and I had to settle for a 5. Shame. It had so much promise.It starts brilliantly with an excellent noir backdrop and a superb modern noir music theme. The (anti?)hero is a smoker - how much more noir can you get!?It hits all the spot - beatings, abductions, threats, being followed, spooks, friends in danger - and worse!.However, much is shot in dim lighting with faded colours so it's not always easy to see what's happening. Atmospheric? If you have to resort to such tricks then No. In The Third Man and The Maltese Falcon every frame was clear. Dim lighting does not equal atmosphere. Who's at fault - the director or cinematographer? Let them share the blame.It tries to fill the troublesome middle section (actually most of the first 3/4 of the movie with flashback exposition. Too much, too much, and not all required. The backstory was quite well telegraphed without all that, and a backstory with the most unlikely of pairings in the history of cinema! (although if Billy Piper could fancy Chris Evans, other than for his money, then any match is fair game!)Add as the editor or director decides to play fast and loose with totally unnecessary film effects (motion blurring and, heck, just blurred filming and shaky hand-help camera work), you start to wonder what happened to the 'noir'. And as the filming deteriorated, so did the music. From the initial atmospheric theme, it descended into electronic thriller mode. And as the theme of a missing girl morphs into a semi-global political and terrorist theme, the 'magic' of noir is lost.Sorry if that sounds damning. It's not so much, but it is incredibly disappointing. Even China Town didn't have to go that far to 'try' to be important. It's not about the theme, it's about the people.So, you might be surprised it still gets an 6. I am! But it loses more points for disappointment than for lack of initial effort. It's still worth watching but it should have been so much better.

gosudar2000 I feel for those who saw this in a theatre. I really do. We watched for ten minutes before returning to the start and turning on the translation. I admit I was surprised even then - the plot is rarely predictable or trite, and the pace varies with the prevailing emotions from scene to scene. The characters are relevant to current times and reasonably complex; even the gumshoe with the heart of gold (Riz Ahmed as Tommy Akhtar) has a few surprises for the viewer along the way. The language of cinema is present throughout, which is unfortunately unusual in modern films which have largely forgotten the roots of making movies. A dark but varied color palette and flashback sequences combine with the cinema verité feel of hand-held camera-work to convey a sense of time lost and passing. It's particularly effective in scenes with altercations, where the audience might see a fist or a movement of a body lurching. It's a much more effective method of showing physical violence than predictable mid shots. Repetition of short visual segments rearrange until the audience sees the events become linear and plot twists align. Corruption and loyalty are themes which move the plot through to the end.The principal characters' acting is convincing and without gimmicks. The cast is believable. Billie Piper is refreshingly mature, and the actress that plays her as a young woman was a good choice. Roshan Seth as Tommy's father is a natural charmer (unless confronted with reprehensible actions) and the supporting cast rounds out a picture of ethnic, religious and economic diversity which looks a lot like modern London.

Andrew Marks From what I actually did pick up on from the movie, the story was pretty interesting and Riz Ahmed did a pretty good job. It was incredibly hard to understand what everybody in the movie were saying, the background noise was too loud, the music was too loud, and the heavy accents at low volumes are hard to understand if you're not familiar with how they speak in England. I don't think they need to change their voices or anything, it's how they speak and I totally respect that, it was just hard to understand for me and most of the audience at my screening.My suggestion: watch it with subtitles when it releases on Blu-Ray and DVD.Seen at TIFF 2016.