Stars: Jamie Anderson, Thomas Lockyer, Megan Dodds, Ned Bellamy, John Cusack, Doug Dearth, Corey Johnson, Morgan Freeman

Director: Bruce Beresford

Summary: Only one man stands between a deadly assassin and a mark, a father protecting his child. Ray Keene and his son embark upon a hiking holiday in order to reconnect after the death of his ex-wife. However, the pair are soon embroiled in a plot involving mercenaries, in this edge-of-the-seat, cat and mouse thriller.

Only one man stands between a deadly assassin and a mark, a father protecting his child. Ray Keene (John Cusak) and his son embark upon a hiking holiday in order to reconnect after the death of his ex-wife. However, the pair are soon embroiled in a plot involving mercenaries, in this edge-of-the-seat, cat and mouse thriller.

WIN DVDs by rating this DVD

Average User Rating:

WIN DVDS by being amongst the first to review this DVD. Reviewing DVDs earns you bonus entries and lets you WIN DVDs!Please login before reviewing this DVD. If you're a new user, register for free and enter to WIN FREE DVDs!

"I try very hard never to distort or dissemble," says Mr. Neville (Anthony Higgins), a draughtsman of considerable talent contracted by a certain Mrs Herbert (Janet Suzman) to make 12 drawings for her absent husband of their English estate. Part of that contract involves Mr Neville taking his pleasure with Mrs Herbert. While Mr Neville aims for fidelity in his drawings, infidelity in private is quite another matter. The film becomes a cerebral puzzle when objects start appearing mysteriously in the subjects of Mr Neville's various drawings: a ladder that wasn't there before, a pair of boots standing in a field. Mr Neville's penchant for realism is stymied by these clues, which may or may not suggest the murder of Mr Herbert. Peter Greenaway seems to have directed this, his first art-house success, with the aim of exploring the failings of perspective in art and casting his doubtful eye on the possibility of "faithful" drawings such as those by which Mr. Neville makes his living. Greenaway was, after all, an art student, and must have known that drawing machines like the one Mr Neville uses in the film (which is set in 1694) led not only to the invention of photography, and therefore of film itself, but also to the renouncing of perspective that informs so much of 20th-century painting.

In the film, Greenaway overlays the story's mysterious elements with highly mannered tableaux, shooting each scene like a realistic, though sumptuous, painting, while his actors spout witty and complicated sentences, suggesting the falseness of surfaces. Mr Neville's faith in surface is his downfall, and Greenaway's triumph is in his distortions and dissemblings, the narrative lie that gets closer to the truth than any architectural drawing could. --Jim Gay, Amazon.com

Aspect Ratio:	16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Inside The Contract - featurette
Subtitles:	English
Year:	2006
Release Date:	August 6, 2007
Runtime:	92 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	R R D 93905
Keywords:	English, General, Contract, Thriller
Genre:	Thriller