No Other Choice

Directed by Park Chan-wook, No Other Choice follows Lee Byung-hun’s Man-su as he concocts a murderous scheme to ensure that he receive a coveted position within a paper company. It’s a stirring premise that’s slowly-but-surely squandered by Park, as the filmmaker, armed with a script written alongside Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar, and Lee Ja-hye, delivers an impossibly padded-out endeavor that does, for the most part, progress at a snail’s pace over the course of its absurd 139 minutes, and it’s clear, certainly, that Park’s decision to infuse No Other Choice with about as gratingly broad a feel as one could envision only exacerbates the lackluster vibe – with, especially, the first kill sequence’s insufferable quirkiness certainly draining it of its impact and tension. The sluggish atmosphere, which is heightened by a recurring emphasis on pointless, tiresome digressions (eg Man-su is bitten by a snake), and while the movie improves very slightly within its comparatively engrossing midsection, No Other Choice builds towards an endless (and deeply unsatisfying) final stretch that ultimately confirms its place as a distressing misfire.

* out of ****