w Delta z (2007)

Director:

Tom Shankland

Writer:

Clive Bradley (screenplay)

Release Date:

2007 (Ireland)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Would you kill the one you love to save yourself from death?

Plot:

A calculating killer coerces a detective to pay for his previous mistakes.

Plot Keywords:

Police | Police Car | Electrical Burn | Female Police Officer | Dead Body

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Barbara Adair	...	Alice Jackson
Stellan Skarsgård	...	Eddie Argo
Peter Ballance	...	Trucker (as Peter Balance)
Selma Blair	...	Jean Lerner
Melissa George	...	Helen Westcott
Tom Hardy	...	Pierre Jackson
Sally Hawkins	...	Elly Carpenter
Lauren Hood	...	Sharon Williams
Caroline Lee-Johnson	...	Gillian (as Caroline Lee Johnson)
'Sean' Brian Jordaan	...	Jamal Osman / Khaled Osman (as Brian 'Saen' Jordan)
Paul Kaye	...	Gelb
Sheila Kerr	...	Alison Lerner
Michael Liebman	...	Wesley Smith
Joshua O'Gorman	...	Dominic Carpenter
Alibe Parsons	...	Miss Allaway

Also Known As:

Waz (UK) (informal title) (USA) (working title)
Devil's Algebra (UK) (working title)
The Killing Gene (USA) (DVD title)
Équation meurtrière (Canada: French title) (DVD title) [fr]
I exisosi (Greece) (DVD title) [el]
Venganza Macabra (Peru) [es]
WAZ - Welche Qualen erträgst du? (Germany) (DVD title) [de]
Waz (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Waz (Finland) (DVD title) [fi]
Waz (Norway) (TV title) [no]

MPAA:

Rated R for strong brutal violence including a rape, gruesome images and pervasive language.

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:R | New Zealand:R18 | Ireland:18 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | UK:18 | Finland:K-18 | Netherlands:16 | Singapore:M18 | USA:Unrated (DVD rating) | Norway:15 (TV rating) | Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK

Company:

Vertigo Films

Goofs:

Continuity: After Gelb is arrested, the whiteboard shows the full, unmarked Price equation. In the next shot, the equation is marked up in red.

Quotes:

Gelb: [explaining the W Delta Z equation] The selfish gene...
Helen Westcott: Go on.
Gelb: You think a bird will sacrifice itself for the flock, or a bee will sting a predator and die for the hive? How noble. How heroic.
Helen Westcott: And it isn't true?
Gelb: No, it isn't true. Suppose you put a snake into the cage and one of the monkeys is a hero - yeah, lures it away, lets it eat him. But it's not heroism. It's not selflessness. Forget the bees. Forget the monkey. The monkey's nothing. Just think what the monkey's made of.
Helen Westcott: What's that?
Gelb: Genes. The monkey is just the gene's way of making copies of itself. All these monkeys, they're all related. They all share their genes. So the monkey dies. What do the genes care? That's what Price proved. There's no altruism in nature. It's just genes looking after themselves. Ha.

Movie Connections:

References Day of the Woman (1978)

It's like "Se7en" 'made in China'. But... surprisingly nicely made

David Fincher's "Se7en" was a good piece because of emotions, not the blood. It was a drama in the core and that was it's strength. Here we have the same attempt, not so well manufactured, but still worth noticing.

First of all we have here quite good screenplay which deals with characters and events in a psychologically believable way and has some interesting scientific backbone. Characters seem real (very stereotypical but real), and plot evolves logically. I wasn't disturbed by any "Yeah, right..." moments. Wasn't then either surprised by any scene at all, but this is why I give it 5 not 10.

(I read here some opinions about similarities of the plot with "Saw" and have to disagree. The difference lays in psychological background of evil which here is much more ... how to say this... real-life related. Realism is a good thing in thriller. It distinguish it from horror. In my opinion WAZ is more thriller while "Saw" is in fact more horror - shitty one, by the way).

The directing is not bad too - it seems like whole crew was given the idea of what they have to do and generally they done it quite well. I see decent directing too in a way the violence and blood is shown - the whole movie is full of it but it is cut in right moments and needless gore is reduced. So here we are again closer to "Se7en" than "Saw"

Then we have Stellan who helps the script being not bad and brings us some emotions. Melisa George is not so good but no one expected that. Selma Blair delivers some interesting moments of performance, but counted rather in seconds than minutes. A little surprise is Paul Kaye in a small but very intense and worth mentioning role.

Third thing is cinematography and lighting. They are done in a much much more intelligent way than in "Saw" yet still being similarly low-budget solutions (only the precinct - but not the entire film like "Saw" - looks like a film set... I can't help I'm seeing it). Almost whole movie is filmed "from hand" and this is - as far as I know - the ONLY on-set method of rescuing a digitally made film from a "miniDV-wedding-tape" look. Postproduction adds little grain and colors and some decent editing and final package brings us near to Michael Mann's "Collateral" (which is good). I dare to say that this film could be 2 stars better if done on REAL cameras, for REAL money.

Summing all up: Let's be honest - it's definitely a cheap thriller. But honestly - definitely one of the best in this class.