★★☆☆☆
Nearly three and a half years after premiering at the Berlin film festival to a curious communal shrug, this undercover thriller from Timur Bekmambetov, the director of Wanted, finally makes it to UK cinemas. It’s very loosely based on the true story of an investigative journalist called Amy (Valene Kane) who creates a fake online persona to investigate Islamic State recruiting practices, but quickly finds her personal safety at risk.
In this version, however, Amy falls improbably in love with a sexy Isis online recruiter called Bilel (Shazad Latif, smouldering throughout), which suggests that she’s not especially good at her job, despite her editor Vick (Christine Adams) barking early on, “You’re the best journalist we have. I need something that’s going to get people talking now!”
The biggest problem is the format. This is another so-called desktop movie. Everything happens through dropdown windows, which, after an initial sensory buzz, quickly becomes tedious and enervating.
15, 106min. In cinemas
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