Willem Dafoe plays a high-tech, high-end art thief who gets trapped in the upscale apartment he’s robbing. This happens in the first few minutes, so the rest of the time is spent with him trying to figure out ways to escape. Meanwhile, the water is cut off, he has no way to communicate and the HVAC plunges him from hot to cold. This becomes a sort of civilized struggle to survive, but the consideration of “art” adds a conceptual layer. Turns out that the crook is also a frustrated artist and his creations in the space become its own statement. There is absolutely no tension, so this isn’t a caper thriller. It’s more a one-man tour-de-force piece of performance art with Dafoe ably handling the all the angles. If you decide to put in the time, be warned that the ending is also frustratingly “creative.” 
(1.5 / 5)
