Off-Piste

“An army operation to take down an IRA cell goes badly wrong, resulting in the death of a young boy. Twelve years later, and his vengeful sister "Niamh" (Lara Lemon) is old enough to set off in pursuit of the soldier who, accidentally, shot him. That takes us to the remote French Alps where he now lives in recluse, with his blind violin-playing mother, trying even now to come to terms with what he has done. She finds him with remarkable ease, but her plan does not quite pan out - especially as her would-be boyfriend from Ireland "Ethan" (Jared Fortune) and his dangerous mate "Logan" (Paul McGuinness) also manage to find them both and it all turns particularly nasty. To call this an implausible story would be an understatement, the whole thing is borderline preposterous. The snowscape scenery is beautiful to look at, but the rest of this offers little by way of a credible thriller with Nathan Bevan-Stewart doing his best as the guilt-ridden soldier "Michael" but an ensemble of easy enough to look at, but hardly more than competent other on-screen talent lurching from unlikely scenario to unlikely scenario - only with guns and a rottenly contrived script. To be fair, it moves along quickly and once it gets going there is some action for us - but I'm afraid you have to leave you sensible head at the door....”