The Riddle (2007)



The Riddle is a 2007 British direct-to-dvd crime drama film produced by Grosvenor Park Productions. The film stars Vinnie Jones, Derek Jacobi, Vanessa Redgrave and Julie Cox, and written and directed by Brendan Foley.

Why It Sucks

 * 1) Terrible editing in some scenes.
 * 2) The incompetency of the main characters and the thugs.
 * 3) Waste of good talent like Derek Jacobi and Vanessa Redgrave, the latter who only appears in two scenes despite featuring a starring credit.
 * 4) Scenes that seem to serve no purpose which just prolong the film and make the characters seem even more idiotic.
 * 5) Two separate plots which in no way relate to each other.
 * 6) It's hard to believe that Mike Sullivan (Vinnie Jones) is easily beaten by the thugs in different scenes when he dwarfs them by his size and physique.
 * 7) There's no apparent connection for why the 19th century characters and some of the modern day ones are played by the same actors, aside from Dickens which will be mentioned in the next point, which just comes off as perplexing.
 * 8) Spoiler: The twist at the end that the Tramp and Charles Dickens (both played by Derek Jacobi) are the same character. How on Earth Charles Dickens was able to live for over a hundred years makes no sense at all and is never explained.
 * 9) The believability that Charles Dickens' manuscript about solving a riddle was found in a pub which has riddles to solve. Too coincidental.
 * 10) Plot holes. For example, how is Mike first dreaming about Charles Dickens' riddle when he doesn't even know about Saddie (Vera Day) discovering the manuscript yet.
 * 11) Charles Dickens references are forced into the dialogue. We get it, one of the film's subplots is about Charles Dickens.