Safe House

This was Daniel Espinosa’s first English language film, after Easy Money in Sweden. He says he tried not to storyboard at all, not even the action sequences, and complains that today’s action films carry so much camera movement and so many cuts that you cannot tell where two characters stand in relation to each other. Cape Town is a route here rather than a backdrop. Espinosa says he starts them in the rich part, takes them through the middle class areas to the poorest parts of the city and finally to a remote part of Africa, and he put the chases in public places rather than an obscure cellar so the geography stays readable. Green Point stadium and the streets of Langa Township carry those scenes. Oliver Wood, cinematographer on all three Bourne films, shot this one on 35 mm. Espinosa says the first person he hired was the sound designer Per Hallberg, because he wanted the audience inside the action. Made for $85 million, it took $208.1 million worldwide. A good fit if you will take the trust bargaining between Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds inside a chase shot in the handheld language of the Bourne films. Not for a viewer who wants the espionage plot opened out; the film spends most of its length outdoors, running.