Legacy: Black Ops

Thomas Ikimi’s slow burner is set for the most part in a shabby New York apartment where a paranoid ex-Black Ops soldier (Idris Elba from ‘The Wire’) is evading arrest for desertion while desperately trying to separate fantasy from reality. Despite a sense of impending post-traumatic-stress-induced madness, Malcolm Gray’s mindset is sufficiently lucid to recall the terrifying moment his Black Ops colleagues were slaughtered by gun-dealing eastern Europeans. Does the papertrail of evidence  really suggest a political set-up by someone within his own family? Or is he simply losing his mind?

Don’t let the ‘Black Ops’ label lead you down the wrong path. While there is a semblance of ‘Call of Duty’-style action during the opening sequence, for the most part British-born Nigerian director Ikimi’s quietly impressive second feature functions as a taut, claustrophobic psychological thriller that requires a fair degree of alertness and a modicum of patience to see it through to its impassioned climax. Ikimi’s dialogue-heavy screenplay is a trifle wearing and a mite too rambling, but there are few misgivings about Elba’s rivetingly naturalistic performance.