The Escape Artist

Who the real animal is here remains to be seen, with surprising and mostly satisfying fallout in this taut legal thriller.

It succeeds despite its little kinks in logic, mesmerizes despite the fact that we're moved to pause periodically to marvel at a plot line that requires an audience to believe that the sharpest-witted characters can be oblivious to the screaming-in-neon signs of disaster lying just ahead.

While the plot rests a tad heavily on a couple of wild coincidences, writer David Wolstencroft ("MI-5") has constructed an interesting tangle of smart dialogue and credible characters to put across a rather cynical view of lawyers and law.

The Escape Artist is unusually willing not to let the audience off the hook, and instead, to help us understand that the pursuit of substantive justice may prove as dangerous as the crimes it seeks to right.

Occasionally, logic is forsaken. But still The Escape Artist maintains its suspense despite the flaws, thanks to rich acting and smart direction.

As an actors’ showcase, The Escape Artist is a distinct success. The fact that that very clearly was not its primary artistic goal only matters so much.

Suffice to say the legal jockeying and cat-and-mouse games are mildly juicy and suspenseful (thanks in part to Kebbell’s unsettling performance as TV’s latest deranged lunatic with a pleasant face), provided one doesn’t work too hard at seeking to decipher them.

Tennant is once again terrific at juggling a lot of emotions from one moment to the next. The supporting cast is also sufficiently fine, including a steely performance from Sophie Okonedo.... Plodding on too far, The Escape Artist becomes a revenge story. And yet, for the ineffably eurocentric reasons I was describing earlier, you keep watching and waiting for the surprise.

It’s two characters for the price of one--or for the price of sitting through the three hours (over two nights) of an opaque and contrived thriller.

It may take a bit of work to suspend disbelief enough to move you forward in your seat, but once there, you'll remain on the edge long enough to make The Escape Artist worth it.