Shattered (2007)

Original title: Butterfly on a Wheel

Director: Mike Barker

Writer: William Morrissey

Composer: Robert Duncan

Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Maria Bello, Gerard Butler, Emma Karwandy, Claudette Mink, Desiree Zurowski, Nicholas Lea, Peter Keleghan, Samantha Ferris

More info: IMDb

Tagline:  Lives will be broken

Plot:  A perfect family's dynamic is ruined by a kidnapper's brutally efficient plot.



My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

The good?  The first twenty minutes or so of what the fuck is going on here and why is Pierce Brosnan doing this to these people and the balls out great fucking ending.  The not so good?  Most of what's in between.  I was bored halfway through and contemplated cutting my losses and watching something else but, as always, I stuck with it.  When it's revealed near the end that Tom (Brosnan) was fucking with this family because the husband, Tom's victim Neil (Butler), had been fucking his wife Judy (Mink), I threw my hands up.  Really?  All of Tom's psychological torture of Neil and Neil's wife Abby (Bello) was all because of this?  OK.  Fine.  At that point I wouldn't have gone any more than giving this a 5/10 but then something happened.  On the way back home from Tom & Judy's house where the shit went down hard in the big, final blowout, Neil is doing everything he can to smooth things over (through lying about the affair) with Abby.  The thing is, she's known about it for a while and she and Tom worked together to royally fuck with their cheating whore spouses.  FUCK YEAH!!!  Oh, wait, the mid section wasn't nearly as good as it should have been.  Sure, the mystery as to why Tom is doing this is all over the place but it felt like it wasn't as thought out as it should have been or perhaps it just wasn't as effective or entertaining as it should have been considering they had a great kick in the guts ending.  It might, just might, be a little fun to watch it a second time, knowing that Abby is in on the prank but I don't have the patience now to find out.  The Lionsgate DVD has a good deal of extras including two featurettes (Breaking Apart the Wheel and Hero to Villain (22 minutes total between both)), a commentary with the director and writer, 2 deleted scenes, 3 alternate scenes and some trailers (none of which belong to this film).