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Spinning Man review: This Guy Pearce, Brosnan thriller toys with us for good


Before watching the little thriller called Spinning Man (2018), I had watched only three films of Guy Pearce, Memento, LA Confidential and Traitor.

I regard Memento and LA Confidential in high regard but don't have the same feeling for Traitor. Spinning Man proves what a brilliant actor Guy Pearce is.

Spinning Man is a peculiar kind of thriller. The movie toys with our mind. It keeps us guessing about the villain but in the end we are not sure we got closure. The primary reason for this is the ambivalent nature of the protagonist played by Guy Pearce.

Pearce plays Evan, a professor who teaches Philosophy at an elite college. Evan is a flawed man. He is consumed by desire. He is attracted to girls of 'college-age.'

Evan comes under the scanner of Detective Robert Malloy, played by Pierce Brosnan, when a teenage girl Joyce Bonner (Odeya Rush) mysteriously goes missing. A witness says Joyce was last seen with a man who drove a car that's exactly the same model and color of Evan's car. This connects Evan with Joyce's disappearance.

Odeya Rush as Joyce


Spinning Man movie plays like a cat and mouse game, but not between its leading characters. The game is played by the makers of the movie with the audience. This is what make Spinning Man an interesting thriller.

The movie supplies us enough evidence to link Evan with the disappearance and likely murder of Joyce. We start suspecting him. We are even damn sure Evan is the culprit. But Evan' s mercurial behavior irritates us.

Evan's wife doesn't trust him due to his past affair with a student. She starts her own little probe to find evidence against him.

Evan doesn't sternly deny anything. He denies the charges against him by saying "I don't remember" "I might or might not have met her". Even his memory fails Evan.

Evan even gives a brief philosophical lecture about the nature of 'memory.' It is interesting that Guy Pearce had played a man suffering form serious lapses of memory in Christopher Nolan's Memento.

Spinning Man is directed by Swedish filmmaker Simon Kaijser. It is a modest thriller that proves to be a perfect entertainer.

The Spinning Man cast is impressive with the likes of Minnie Driver, Brosnan, and Pearce supported by the beautiful Odeya Rush and Alexandra Shipp. Shipp and Rush helps us get a glimpse of the suppressed sexual fantasies of Pearce's character.



Spinning Man ending is as elusive as Evan's behavior. The ending of Spinning Man doesn't give us the pleasure of closure. If you love some philosophy lecture and thrills go watch Spinning Man.
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