★★☆☆☆
It has perhaps the first sighting in cinema of the swastika-iced cupcake, but otherwise there few shocks in Imperium, as Daniel Radcliffe goes undercover as the FBI agent Nate Foster. His job is to infiltrate a group of American white supremacists who are intent on making a “dirty” bomb. Foster’s handler is played by Toni Collette, usually a cracking actress but whose major character trait here is chewing gum.
Daniel Ragussis’s direction is clunky — endless news montages of Hitler fans, Ku Klux Klansmen and skinheads marching the streets do little to build the story, although it is fun watching Foster’s face as he is given a white supremacy tattoo by his new mates. The tension is supposed to come from Foster being on the point of being found out, but Radcliffe overdoes it — you feel like he’s saying: “Look, I’m acting! Playing a double-layered character!” Another problem for poor Radcliffe is that he is too familiar for such a role. You expect the skinheads to out him with the words: “You are Harry Potter. I claim my prize.”
15, 106min