Newb filmmaker Daniel Roby wrote, produced and directed this true-events film. Everything was on point, and although I'm not a fan of time-shifting stories, Roby did this well enough, that the somewhat slow pace didn't make the 125 min runtime feel long at all.

It was a great story that needed to be told, and although told well enough, imo, it could've used a little Hollywood punch to elevate it. The casting was good and the performances were convincing. It was shot well, with an excellent score, and the sets and cinematography fit the timeline perfectly.

Roby should be very proud of this little gem. Don't go into this one expecting a big budget Hollywood-style action thriller, but more as a well put together docu-story that should be seen. It's a well deserved 8/10 from me.

"Most Wanted" (a.k.a., "Target Number One") started with good intentions as a hard-hitting thriller about a dedicated investigative journalist, a dying breed in today's world of journalism as propaganda.

The journalist is Canadian Victor Malarek, who was effectively played by Josh Hartnett. Malarek believes that a Canadian sting operation that resulted in the life incarceration of a Canadian citizen in Thailand was fishy from the get-go. Due to his efforts, the journalist is able to get to the bottom of a ridiculous sting operation and a failed cover-up involving some of the most inept police investigators imaginable.

Young Daniel Leger was a junkie who was inexplicably entrapped by the incompetent police. Leger was linked up with another low-level drug pusher named Glen Picker. It is Picker who leads the authorities to Leger in return for an enormous cash finder's fee. But the appropriately named Picker has just picked the pockets of the Canadian police.

A major shortcoming of the film was in its sloppy editing, which resulted in a confusing time sequence when Malarek interviews Leger in Thailand long before he has even boarded the plane to Bangkok from from Canada. The filmmakers should have returned to the editing room to shift the footage to make a chronological narrative that the audience could follow. This was not a film that would be enhanced stylistically through flashbacks and cross-cutting. The director needed to simply tell a story.

The characterization of the semi-fictionalized Leger also seemed stretched when he became an intellectual while serving eight years in a Thai prison and apparently committed to Buddhism.

Lured into a ridiculous trap by the overly zealous Canadian police, Leger may have been a victim. In the end, however, Leger's story was not terribly moving. And the police involved in this giant fiasco were never reprimanded and received cushy desk jobs following their unethical conduct. One could argue that the Canadian caper, as well as this film, was much ado about nothing in the so-called war on drugs in the 1980s and '90s.

In 1989, newspaper reporter Victor Malarek (Josh Hartnett) travels to Thailand to interview imprisoned Canadian Daniel Léger (Antoine Olivier Pilon). He suspects foul play by the Canadian authorities. Sleazy informant Glen Picker (Jim Gaffigan) had sold Daniel as a drug kingpin importing heroin from Thailand to his police handler Sergeant Frank Cooper (Stephen McHattie).

This should be sold as a case of police corruption. I am glad that the film doesn't short-shrift Daniel's petty wrong-doings but that also makes him a less appealing victim. He's a victim of his own bad decisions. Saving him is not a big motivation. It's more compelling to take down corrupt cops. That's the better spin but spin may not be the story's goal. It's also a very cookie-cutter story. Again, based on a true story is holding it back. It's fine. I like some of these actors.