Washington and Hawke are perfect choices for their roles and especially Denzel's
performance is
magnificent, keeping his character somewhere between insanity and reason, menacing and jovial at the same time, deserving the Oscar he
got for it.
Winstead has had a bit of an odd trajectory in her career, going from thin supporting parts in big dumb studio movies to a huge indie breakout with her
magnificent performance in Smashed a few years ago that she unfortunately didn't really capitalize on afterwards, but here she
gets the best of both worlds by developing a kickass character we can root for in a thrilling genre piece that also has some depth to her.