How do you (does one) account for a movie like The Expatriate? It”s not like it”s irredeemably bad, but it is irrevocably dull. Aaron Eckhart (who you know I love) plays an ex-CIA agent working on some top-security project, who goes on the run when his employers try to permanently erase all records of his existence. It co-stars the truly, truly awful Olga Kurylenko, who runs the gamut of emotions from A to A as the handler tasked with shutting Aaron up. There’s a daughter in it too, who’s estranged from Aaron and therefore required by the script to be stroppy and do unaccountably stupid things.
The Expatriate is like every Liam Neeson movie from the past 5 years, but without Liam Neeson and set in Belgium – which, let’s face it, hardly has a rep as a glamorous destination of thrills and intrigue. I can only assume that it was made with European funds, because Brussels and Antwerp feature heavily as the locations. Frankly, there really are better ways to spend your time.