'Dead Man Down' review: Hollow

Noomi Rapace, of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," seems to be making a specialty of playing mangled survivors. As the inked-up Lisbeth Salander, she was a rape victim who gave as good as she got; as an astronaut in "Prometheus," she was gutted by a machine but literally held herself together; in her latest film, "Dead Man Down," she plays Beatrice, a car-crash victim whose face is embroidered with hot pink scars.

She certainly isn't the sunny love interest usually encountered in crime thrillers like "Dead Man Down," but this is an unusually dark film. On its face, it's a typical revenge story, with Colin Farrell as Victor, a man patiently plotting the deaths of those who killed his family and saving his grandest gesture for crime boss Alphonse Hoyt (a slick Terrence Howard). If you're thinking Beatrice represents a new start for this sullen widower, you're right -- to a point.

Victor, who takes a serial killer's pleasure in planting cryptic clues and puzzle pieces on his victims, could certainly use some cheering up. Unfortunately, Beatrice is hatching her own grisly plan and has chosen Victor to execute it. After their first date goes frighteningly awry, she begins tailing her new "boyfriend" on his various assassinations and, even more frightening, shows up to his apartment sporting little-girl pigtails and crazy eyes. In this morbid, morose movie, this is what passes for romance.

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