Apostle

Directed by Gareth Evans, Apostle follows Dan Stevens’ Thomas Richardson as he travels to a remote Welsh island to rescue his sister from a mysterious cult (led by Michael Sheen’s Malcolm Howe). Filmmaker Evans, working from his own screenplay, delivers a moody and impressively atmospheric thriller that benefits substantially from its gritty set design and stirring performances, although, as becomes clear early on, the movie suffers from an exceedingly (and excessively) deliberate pace that slowly-but-surely renders its myriad of positive attributes moot – with, at least, Evans punctuating the proceedings with a handful of admittedly engrossing interludes (eg a spy is brutally unconvered by Howe and his goons). All the compelling sequences in the world ultimately can’t compensate for an egregiously padded-out and punishingly overlong midsection, however, and it’s disappointing to note, as well, that Apostle culminates with a climactic stretch that simply isn’t able to pack the visceral and exciting punch that Evans has undoubtedly intended (ie the viewer’s interest has long-since waned by that point). The end result is a sporadically intriguing yet mostly underwhelming piece of work that could (and should) have been judiciously trimmed down to, at the most, 100 minutes, with the picture’s failure especially unfortunate given its proliferation of decidedly engaging performances and set-pieces.

** out of ****

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