This is a beautifully filmed suspense drama showcasing some of the splendid scenery of Budapest. However, it's also a barely credible tale of a rich and over-educated couple who live in Hungary and are in the midst of planning their high society wedding. When the couple is blackmailed as a result of engaging in the three-way tryst, the full degree of their ineptitude becomes the focus of the story.
And that's where the film's credibility becomes strained-no one is that criminally stupid! Not even if you have a wealthy dad who's also the American ambassador, and who has "bailed you out of trouble" your whole life, as is the case with the female lead. It's challenging to think that a diplomatic lawyer and his oh-so-gracious bride to be lack the basic street smarts needed to extricate themselves from the unknown blackmailer's scheme. What they actually do is jump through all the hoops demanded of them. At every juncture of the film, the pair "strategizes" on how to turn the tables on the unknown blackmailer; and with each ill-conceived strategy, they only succeed in getting deeper and deeper into despair.
Toward the last part of this annoyingly naive cat-and-mouse plot, the husband is taken hostage when he finally agrees to pay the blackmailer. By that point, most viewers will probably have guessed what the answer to the mystery is.
The acting by Jonathan Schaech, Bruce Davison, Julie Benz, and others is adequately convincing. And though Lori Heuring's acting is also on point, her character of the witless and superficial girlfriend lacked literary believability. Screenplay writer Robert Sullivan and author Dylan Tarason concocted a worthwhile plot, but unfortunately populated it with simple-minded and un-relatable protagonists.
