Not Safe for Work

Not Safe for Work casts Max Minghella as Thomas Miller, an ambitious legal assistant who finds himself trapped in his company’s offices alongside a brutal assassin (JJ Feild) – with the movie primarily detailing the game of cat and mouse that ensues between the two men. Filmmaker Joe Johnston, working from Adam Mason and Simon Boyes’ screenplay, delivers an opening half hour that is, to put it mildly, less-than-engrossing, as the movie is initially concerned with the central character’s work-related exploits and his company’s efforts to mount a case against a powerful mafia family. There’s little doubt that it is, at the outset, difficult to work up much interest in or enthusiasm for Thomas’ various endeavors, and it’s only as Feild’s decidedly malevolent character arrives on the scene that Not Safe for Work begins to show signs of life. The movie’s lackluster atmosphere receives a palpable boost past that point, with the inclusion of an unexpectedly tense sequence, detailing the killer’s encounter with one of Thomas’ panicky coworkers, triggering a midsection that’s often far more engrossing than one might’ve anticipated (ie Thomas and the murderer’s cat-and-mouse shenanigans are genuinely exciting and suspenseful). It’s disappointing to note, then, that Not Safe for Work fizzles out rather dramatically in its final stretch, as Mason and Boyes transform Feild’s menacing figure into a disappointingly typical big-screen villain (ie he begins explaining things when he should be murdering) – which ultimately confirms the movie’s place as an erratic yet entertaining little thriller that could (and should) have been better.

**1/2 out of ****