Author: KickingK
Date: Tuesday December 09th, 2025
File under: Did nobody read the script?
Whilst this is based on 'true events' I can't judge the veracity of the story or the characters of the people it's portraying. I can only judge it as a film. And quite simply, this is one of the most misjudged films I've ever seen. Most of the film has the tone of a regular domestic drama, of a man making poor life choices and then learning to deal with the consequences.
But these are not poor choices, they are the work of a borderline psychopath. A serial, compulsive, inveterate liar who's selfishness wrecks the lives of just about every person who he comes in to contact with.
You can gloss over the traumatising effects of armed robbery in a film if you make it slapstick enough, and that's clearly the memo that Peter Dinklage got, as he plays his character superbly as a panto villain.
But you can't gloss over inveigling your way into a divorcees life by spying on her and then ingratiating yourself with her teenage daughters by lavishing them with gifts. Which you've stolen. These scenes are played first as a rom-com meet-cute and then as a heartwarming family drama. I watched the whole thing through gritted teeth, dumbstruck that nobody seemed to have realised that this constitutes sexual assault.
The film does show the character coming to terms with what he's done and the harm he's caused. But by failing to honestly portray the pathological behaviour needed to get to that point, that realisation comes across as self-serving and self-pitying.
Absolutely baffling how this got made.
