This is the tenth film is Cassavetes‘s filmography and it surprises me more than most that it turns out to be an action thriller. If there was one common thread throughout his entire filmography it’s that he refuses to fall into any genre for the sake of removing character from the equation, but here he breaks that rule so quickly it saddens me.

Jack is in fear of his life after making a comment he shouldn’t have to his employers (who happen to be the mob). With the mob closing in Jack sends his son, Phil (John Adames), to go with Gloria (Gena Rowlands) and run from the impending massacre handing him the book of accounts in question hoping it will save his life. The film then continues in generic thriller/action tropes of having numerous close scrapes with the mob constantly breathing down Gloria and Phil’s necks with them trying to finish the job they started.

While unseasoned Cassavetes is able to make these tightly constructed action sequences with Gloria against the mob work (though I wouldn’t go and call him any Jee-Woon Kim). Whenever we see the mob come around the corner, even though Gloria is given a sizeable amount of slack from them that you wouldn’t see in most action chase films, the tension created generally pays off well. It works especially well when Gloria actually engages with gunfire as opposed to just randomly running away. There’s one particular scene where she tries to elude the mob silently by taking her shoes off to go down a stairway and it’s really fun watching wondering if she’s going to mess up, if there’s a guy around the next corner, is she free and clear now?

Sadly though when the action stops and we’re left to just be with Gloria and Phil the interactions never seem to come off as charming as I’m guessing they hoped. This is mainly hurt by the fact that John Adames (Phil) comes off as another annoying child actor who Gena has to act around to make any scene at all bearable.

The question came up recently with Quvenzhané Wallis‘ nomination for Best Actress in Beasts of the Souther Wild in the upcoming Academy Awards; are child actors acting? While I don’t want to compare Adames and Wallis here, it’s fairly obvious here more than in Beasts that Adames is not acting rather than merely existing in the scene to make sure that a plot point is served and so that we don’t get the odd feeling that Gean Rowlands is going insane talking to herself the entire time.