6 Days

Bell is terrific - a combination of cocky swagger and perfect focus ...

There is a payoff here, even if the film does come across like an oddly nostalgic ode to the hard-line stance of Britain's 'Iron Lady', Margaret Thatcher.

For the most part, the results are pleasing and unexpectedly thoughtful.

With a barrage of title-card identifications, "6 Days" can feel closer to a re-enactment than a thriller. To the extent that the movie has a political angle, it's perhaps gratuitously jingoistic.

A stiffly executed re-creation of the events surrounding the 1980 hostage-taking attack on London's Iranian Embassy that packs all the high-stakes intrigue of a filed police report.

Shot and styled in contemporary, ticking-clock action fashion, it compresses the complex Theatcher-era politics of its fractious standoff into a simplified West-versus-Middle-East conflict that registers as broadly topical.

If not entirely compelling, 6 Days gives us a little to chew on from several different perspectives of these well-known events.

It's a shame that the story is rather bogged down by a sagging script and only basic character sketches.

6 Days felt unfortunately like 6 months.

6 Days takes on a storied event and presents it as a riveting tale delivered with precision and focus.