You won't see any car chases or martial arts; rather, you'll get a slick, solid, hour-and-a-half tale of the everyman stumbling through dodgy black market activity, while trying to subdue the dangers he presents to the people around him.
As Chris and Stephen are plunged into an afternoon of ugliness, the urge to scream at them for their poor choices matches the compulsion to pay careful attention to whatever fresh hell Sparkes unleashes next.
Embedded in the tale are reversals of character expectation — it's hand-wringing Karen rather than gruff Stephen who emerges the unforgiving “tough love” parent, while “good son” Jeremy and perpetual screwup Chris aren't quite what they appear — which demand sometimes-challenging leaps of viewer belief.
In particular, Patton lends his father figure a pained devotion that renders just about psychologically plausible straight-arrow Stephen's willingness to violently flaunt the law under pressure.
"[2] For The Hollywood Reporter, Frank Scheck wrote that "it’s Patton’s intense, vanity-free turn — his wildly unkempt, thinning hair practically delivers a performance of its own — that firmly anchors the proceedings.