"The Square" opens with two parked cars at a scenic overlook. In one of them, two agitated dogs observe the other vehicle where their respective owners, Ray and Carla, are engaged in some steamy extra-marital gymnastics. When Carla returns home, she spots her rough diamond husband hiding a bag of cash in the ceiling of their washroom. She decides to steal it and run off with her lover to begin a new life together. Construction site manager Ray declines to go along with her scheme at first, anticipating the fallout will foul up his sweet workplace kickback scam, but Carla's charms prove too tempting. The lovers hire themselves a dubious partner, lash together a creaky plan and set it in motion, only to meet with a firestorm of foul-ups, suspicion and terror.
"The Square" shares several themes with "Body Heat" and "Blood Simple" - the chief differences being its gritty realism and fast pacing. It also boasts a fine array of support roles which provide numerous possibilities for misunderstandings and betrayal among the various conspirators, victims and bystanders as their lives spiral out of control. By the time the dust has cleared at the conclusion, it seems the phrase 'ratcheting up the tension' might have been coined for 'The Square'. Nash Edgerton directs his brother Joel's tight script, extracting intense, believable performances from his actors. It all adds up to an impressive modern Indie film noir.
