Film review: Red Notice could have been great with a bit more finesse

Dwayne Johnson as John Hartley and Ryan Reynolds as Nolan Booth in Red Notice.

★★★☆☆

A Red Notice (12A) is the highest level of alert issued by Interpol, although Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds) probably likes all the fuss – a fast-talking narcissist, Booth revels in the notoriety of being world’s most infamous art thief, and especially after he steals Cleopatra’s legendary jewelled egg. 

Tracked down by FBI profiler John Hartley (Dwayne Johnson) at the start of the movie, Booth is doubly devastated: not only is he dispatched to a high-security prison in deepest, darkest Siberia, but his incarceration means that The Bishop (Gal Gadot) is now considered the world’s greatest art thief. When Hartley winds up sharing a cell with Booth, the pair immediately begin plotting to bring down The Bishop, a virtually impossible task that is further complicated by their mutual antipathy.

Written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, Red Notice is a nifty blend of buddy-buddy movie and heist flick spoof. A globe-trotting affair that ranges from Rome to Russia, Valencia to the Argentinian jungle, it wears its influences proudly on its sleeve (To Catch a Thief and Raiders of the Lost Ark, among others). 

The plot is a cat’s-cradle of double- and triple-crosses, and doesn’t bear too close a scrutiny; most of the fun comes from Booth and Hartley’s constant bickering, with Johnson playing the role of a muscle-bound intellectual with an impressively straight face and Reynolds – no surprise – mugging furiously as he scatterguns quips whilst offering a running commentary on the increasingly implausible proceedings. 

Gal Gadot’s character seems a little underwritten, which is a pity, because she brings an irreverent sense of mischief to her role as the glamorous arch-criminal. It’s all very entertaining and archly knowing, but with a little more finesse in the plotting, Red Notice could easily have been a great heist movie. 

(cinema release & Netflix)