Trespass Against Us

Crime fiction has a long, rich legacy of stories pitting one character’s allegiances against each other. Internal conflict is the engine that generates drama for criminals; torn between conscience and instinct, between right and wrong, or in the case of upcoming British import Trespass Against Us, between family and the law. Which is a long-winded way of saying that a good deal of crime thrillers boil down to “protagonist would rather not do crime, but someone else wants him to do crime, so he must.” And when Michael Fassbender’s your protagonist and Brendan Gleeson is your someone else, you’re off to a pretty strong start.

Few actors seem to embody the one-for-you-one-for-me approach to the industry quite like Michael Fassbender. While no one doubts the man’s ability as an actor, his career increasingly seems to be split between blockbuster motion pictures  —  such as the X-Men franchise of the upcoming Assassin’s Creed  —  and smaller art films with directors and costars he seems to admire. It seems like a fair trade to me. If buying a movie ticket to X-Men: Days of Future Past meant I played a role in pairing Fassbender with Brendan Gleeson in the same movie, then I consider that to be money pretty well spent.