I mainly watched this because it had Josh Hartnett, who I have loved in Penny Dreadful (yes, I was a bit late to that party), and also Jim Gaffigan. Also, I have been watching the great Canuck crime drama, "Cardinal" so I am a bit obsessed with finding out how things aren't always so peaceful in the Great White North.
Main plot of this "Based on True Events" story is a poor sucker junkie gets ensnared in what is basically one of the most ludicrous cases of Entrapment in history - or at least in Canadian History. This kid is just looking to get high, and the Jim Gaffigan character convinces him to fly to Thailand to score ten kilos of "H" as they so uncooly call it. This, all financed and supported by the Canuck version of the DEA, masterminded on the Government side by a rail-thin, specter of an agent, played by Stephen McHattie (who all of you X Files fans will recognize).
If it sounds implausible, it probably is, because the notes at the end confusingly indicate that maybe this all happened, maybe it didn't. Mainly, because apparently the Canadian Government has sought for years to suppress the truth. Except, the film was financed, in part, by Provencal bucks from the Government of Quebec. Oh, right, Quebec has been trying to secede from Canada for decades.
OK, back to the film. Everything here is pretty effective, pretty well-written and well-acted. Only problem is the time shift narrative only becomes apparent about a third of the way through, when you realize that you are watching a retrospective of historical events, and a current timeline of our pitiful junk getting ready to rot in a horrible Thai prison.
You'll have to watch to find out what really happens.
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