Kate

Directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Kate follows Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s title assassin as she embarks on a campaign of revenge after ingesting a slow-acting poison. It’s an almost inherently compelling setup that’s employed to watchable yet far-from-spectacular effect by Nicolas-Troyan, as the filmmaker, working from a script by Umair Aleem, delivers a perpetually familiar thriller that boasts few surprises and does, generally speaking, unfold precisely as one might’ve anticipated – with the less-than-novel atmosphere compounded by a reliance on unconvincing special effects and an oddly convoluted second half. It’s clear, then, that Kate benefits substantially from Winstead’s compelling performance and a raft of relatively exciting action sequences, and there’s little doubt, as well, that the narrative’s propulsive bent goes a long way towards alleviating the picture’s assortment of decidedly lackluster elements – although, by that same token, it’s hard to deny that the somewhat anticlimactic final stretch prevents the movie from ending on the positive note one might’ve anticipated. The end result is a decent-enough actioner that fares best as a showcase for Winstead’s often electrifying turn as the grizzled central character, with the absence of innovative attributes generally preventing Kate from becoming the exciting piece of work for which Nicolas-Troyan is striving.

**1/2 out of ****