Reckless | Film review - Patrick Wilson's slick lawyer loses control

Outwardly smooth but inwardly in turmoil, Patrick Wilson's high-flying lawyer develops an addiction to classy call girls in this overheated erotic thriller.

Why take the risk

There’s something a little too slick about Patrick Wilson’s perfectly chiselled good looks. Which makes him ideally cast as the slippery protagonist of this erotic thriller about a high-flying lawyer who develops an addiction to classy call girls.

The plot is undeniably overheated. But Wilson’s self-sabotaging anti-hero, Sam Ellis, is convincingly conflicted, while Lena Headey shows flashes of House of Cards’ Claire Underwood as his politically ambitious wife. Ray Winstone pops up, rather less convincingly it has to be said, as the grizzled journalist whose discovery of Sam’s secret life threatens to derail his career.

Certificate 15. Runtime 108 mins. Director Mora Stephens

Reckless debuts on Sky Cinema premiere on Sunday 14 May. Available on DVD from Arrow Films.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M9dvJv9rZQ

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.