Martin Raikes (Michael Keaton) is a forensic accountant...a guy who investigates irregularities in the banking industry. When an irregularity pops up at a French movie studio, he heads to France to look into things...though nothing seems that out of the ordinary. That is, until someone shows up and tries to give him a briefcase full of cash! He naturally refuses and shortly after this, he's set up...making it appear as if he' murdered a government official and embezzled money. And, when he tries to give himself up to the SWAT-like team that descends on him, he notices the leader of the team is the same man that tried to bribe him...and Raikes takes off! Soon, he's being chased all over southern France and the television stations are filled with film footage of him supposedly readying for the murder. It's obvious he's been set up and set up very completely. In fact, the mob behind all this is so thorough and deadly that he can't possibly trust the police or other authorities...so he tries desperately to hide out and still somehow investigate what's really happening.
"Quicksand" is a very tense and exciting film. It also GENERALLY has an intelligently written and interesting plot. But the trivia section for this film notes a glaring plot problem that I also noticed. Raikes has someone who can clear him and he makes a video of her confessing to the truth. He then sends this confession ONLY to himself and one other person who he trusted. Why not send a copy to CNN, the FBI, the CIA, the YMCA, the Boys Club of America, the Prime Minister, Ronald McDonald....heck, ANYONE and EVERYONE! Sending it to social media or handing out CDs with the confession on every street corner would have made a lot of sense as well...but he only sends it to himself as well as to someone who, it turns out, is part of this huge conspiracy! It is a shame, as without this very big plot hole, the film was great. Plus, Keaton was very good in the lead and the movie one I still recommend...with this one big reservation! As it is, it's a wonderful film with a confusingly bad plot hole....confusing that it was so obvious but got made anyway. Sadly, without this plot hole, I might have even scored the movie a 9 or 10....the rest of it was THAT good.
By the way, IMDB says that Raikes traveled to Monaco but in the film he actually goes to nearby Nice, France (a short distance from Monaco). The only Monaco connection I noticed in the film was that the mob deposited money into an account in this tiny country in order to make him appear guilty of taking bribes.
"Quicksand" is a very tense and exciting film. It also GENERALLY has an intelligently written and interesting plot. But the trivia section for this film notes a glaring plot problem that I also noticed. Raikes has someone who can clear him and he makes a video of her confessing to the truth. He then sends this confession ONLY to himself and one other person who he trusted. Why not send a copy to CNN, the FBI, the CIA, the YMCA, the Boys Club of America, the Prime Minister, Ronald McDonald....heck, ANYONE and EVERYONE! Sending it to social media or handing out CDs with the confession on every street corner would have made a lot of sense as well...but he only sends it to himself as well as to someone who, it turns out, is part of this huge conspiracy! It is a shame, as without this very big plot hole, the film was great. Plus, Keaton was very good in the lead and the movie one I still recommend...with this one big reservation! As it is, it's a wonderful film with a confusingly bad plot hole....confusing that it was so obvious but got made anyway. Sadly, without this plot hole, I might have even scored the movie a 9 or 10....the rest of it was THAT good.
By the way, IMDB says that Raikes traveled to Monaco but in the film he actually goes to nearby Nice, France (a short distance from Monaco). The only Monaco connection I noticed in the film was that the mob deposited money into an account in this tiny country in order to make him appear guilty of taking bribes.