With the tightly wound "Essential Killing," veteran Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski ("Deep End," "The Shout") defies a slew of cinematic conventions in an attempt to intrigue, rattle and rivet his audience. For the most part, he succeeds.
Starring iconoclastic American actor Vincent Gallo ("Buffalo '66," "The Brown Bunny") as Mohammed, a Taliban fighter who, through a series of dire events, ends up on the loose in a wintry Eastern European forest, the movie deftly shifts from its initial chase thriller mode to a grueling, offbeat tale of human survival. Skolimowski's you-are-there cameras — along with plenty of stirring helicopter shots — vividly capture the frigid terror of Mohammed's agonizing journey as he dispatches any obstacle in his path to freedom with brutal single-mindedness.
