NON-STOP

Non-Stop is a slightly preposterous thriller about the hijacking of a transatlantic aircraft. Liam Neeson plays the air marshal with personal problems (his beloved daughter has died of cancer, his wife has left him, thereby leading to a steady drift into alcoholism etc) who has to save everybody, while at the same time avoiding being stitched up by the dastardly clever bad guys (who are of course not quite clever enough to win in the end). I watched it this evening at the local cinema. As these sorts of things go, it was actually quite good. Although the final result is never in doubt, it had a sort of Agatha Christie Cleudo attraction in trying to work out which of the people in the drawing room (sorry, passengers) had done it with the lead piping (sorry, bombs and mobile telephones).

There were only two of us in the cinema, the operator and me. The film hasn't done very well in Denmark, I suspect because it is not really very good, and Europeans are not obsessed with security. This is in sharp contrast to the U.S., where they are so obsessed, and where it was a blockbuster, coming in at number one on its opening weekend and staying there for some time. So far the film has grossed close to US$200 million worldwide, against a budget of around US$50 million.

Which shows both that entertainment can be profitable and that in matters of taste and culture, people think differently. Thank goodness.

Walter Blotscher