Taglines: Be careful who you work for.
When ex-CIA agent Ben Logan (Aaron Eckhart) discovers that he and his daughter have been marked for termination as part of a wide-reaching international conspiracy, a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse ensues as Logan tries to outsmart his hunters and uncover the truth.
The story centers on Ben Logan (Aaron Eckhart) an ex-CIA agent and Amy (Liana Liberato), his estranged daughter who are forced on the run when his employers erase all records of his existence, and mark them both for termination as part of a wide-reaching international conspiracy.
Erased (also known as The Expatriate outside of the US) is a thriller film directed by Philipp Stölzl, starring Aaron Eckhart and Olga Kurylenko. The movie was released in the US on May 17, 2013, following its acquisition by RaDiUS-TWC, the multiplatform distribution label of The Weinstein Company. It was retitled “Erased” for the US market.
About the Story (2013)
Ben Logan, an American single parent who has recently moved with his estranged daughter to Belgium, works for a multinational technology corporation called Halgate Group. When one of his co-workers discovers that a patent has been apparently misfiled, Logan brings it to the attention of his boss, Derek Kohler. Shortly afterward, his entire office building is emptied and no records exist to show that he was ever an employee. Confused, Logan attempts to prove his employment by accessing bank records, but he is kidnapped at gunpoint by a coworker.
Logan kills the coworker in front of his stunned daughter, who demands to know his background; Logan cryptically alludes to “getting people in and out of difficult situations”. In his investigation, Logan discovers that the rest of his coworkers have all been killed, and he goes into hiding, aided by his daughter’s contacts among undocumented immigrants.
Eventually, Logan uncovers a wide-ranging conspiracy involving illegal arms sales to African insurgents and a fake company, not a Halgate division, used by the CIA to harness his engineering skills. Logan reveals that he is an ex-CIA operative, and he is hunted down by his former CIA coworkers, led by Anna Brandt, a former lover. When Brandt turns and attempts to protect his daughter, she is killed; Logan goes after his corrupt former employers and blows up the CEO of the company with a bomb hidden in a suitcase.
Review for Erased Movie (2013)
Ben Logan (Eckhart) left the CIA — for reasons not explained until well into the proceedings — to work for the Antwerp office of a European company which makes devices that can penetrate the highest-security systems, presumably benefiting good-guy governments. It’s a job he’s held for just a few weeks. Also new and somewhat awkward is his living situation with his teenage daughter Amy (Liana Liberato), still recovering from the loss of her mother, whom Ben had separated from long before she became terminally ill.
Eventually it becomes clear that Ben has been set up, his skills exploited by a shadow employer with no apparent ties to the legit one he thought had hired him; he’s forced to scram with an initially panicked, then surprisingly resourceful Amy. Together they elude assassins and local cops, and deal with Amy’s understandable shock that she never knew her dad’s true profession, let alone his adeptness at killing bad guys, picking locks and myriad other normally criminal activities.
The tricky script by Arash Amel (of the forthcoming “Grace of Monaco”) borders on the over-convoluted in its conspiracy-theory intricacies, and occasionally risks silliness with a “You lied to me! You’re the worst dad ever!” father/daughter dynamic. But it’s all very confidently handled by Stoelzl, with excellent use of locations and an able multinational cast. While never exactly
nerve-jangling, or as visceral as the “Bourne” series in its action sequences, it’s still a confidently engineered, propulsive piece of intelligent action cinema.
An actor who probably should have become a major American star some time ago, Eckhart easily shoulders the authority of an essentially decent man and father nonetheless accustomed to violence, who convincingly speaks many languages and proves awfully capable in a wide range of high-pressure situations (although the thesp’s decision to do the cliched manly-man Eastwoodian “whisper voice” is debatable). Liberato is decent; the currently overexposed Olga Kurylenko doesn’t do much with her mole role. Colorful supporting cast includes Alexander Fehling and Nick Alachiotis as two among many characters dispatched to eliminate our protagonists.
Erased (2013)
Directed by: Philipp Stölzl
Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Liana Liberato, Olga Kurylenko, Garrick Hagon, Eric Godon, Katelijne Verbeke
Screenplay by: Arash Amel
Production Design by: Jean-François Campeau
Cinematography by: Kolja Brandt
Film Editing by: Dominique Fortin
Costume Design by: Pascaline Chavanne
Art Direction by: Patrick Dechesne
Music by: Jeff Danna
MPAA Rating: R for violence.
Studio: Radius TWC
Release Date: May 17, 2013
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