Like the subject says, Sean Bean did a sterling job in this movie and really took the accent and retained it throughout. It may be arguable that he did not acquire as much screen time as the other cast members, but clearly it was an imperative decision to spend the majority of the production budget on an English actor Sean Bean and a dialect coach for his accent rather than an interesting screenplay or quality locations and props for drugs which looked very cheap.

I really wasn't feeling generous when I slugged across the finish line with this one.

i'm wondering why people..quite a few actually reviewed the movie and enjoyed it and wound up giving it 4's and 5's. imo its a solid 6 movie. it was totally engrossing to me. Abby Breslin was the main lead and she did a wonderful job...everybody else were good or better. yes...its not believable that a girl would run packages of hillbilly crack for her uncle at only 10 dollars a trip, that was the only unbelievable thing to me. if you are a fan of either...Breslin...Bean or Purefoy, watch this movie, both male leads get plenty of screen time too. hey...its a good watch if one doesn't fall asleep through the movie..i totally enjoyed the movie.

I watched this film simply on the recommendation of a dear friend who knows I have a thing for elements of chess in a movie, either as supporting theme or a cameo, or as the centerpiece, if you will.

The script was good, and delivered and filmed well enough, though a bit too simplistic for me and I felt I knew where the story was going too easily. It felt like a diet movie. I wasn't about to gain any mental weight trying to decipher plot twists or subtle character alleys. That's not harsh, it's just how I saw it. Most of my attention was on the analogy of chess pieces to the unfolding plot of teenage girl against the wickedness all about her. In her own family! For the life of me, I spent the better part of the credits going back and forth trying to find the source of the chess "poem," but never got anything definitive other than the script.

And don't think you're going to SEE a lot of strategic chess scenes. You have to listen to the poem interwoven throughout for the saving grace.

I found the cinematography crisp, and enjoyed the opening landscapes with a darker tie-in further into the movie.

The music was good, and per the credits, mostly original too!