Chasing Millions (2026)

Chasing Millions Review: A Buddy-Cop Heist with an Identity Crisis

Chasing Millions arrives with a compelling hook: the 2004 Northern Bank robbery, one of the largest heists in history, reframed through a mismatched detective duo. Director Stephen Burke and co-writer Katherine Thomson have the raw materials for a sharp crime dramedy — an Australian outsider (Madeleine Madden) clashing with a weathered Belfast veteran (Christopher Eccleston), a "true(ish)" tagline promising creative license, and a 100-minute runtime that demands efficiency. The result is a film that works in fits and starts, elevated by its leads but undermined by tonal uncertainty.

Direction and Tone

Burke, whose previous work includes the acclaimed Maze, understands the texture of Northern Irish tension. The Belfast streets feel lived-in, not touristy, and the production design captures the grey-green palette of a city still negotiating its past. However, the film struggles to settle on a consistent voice. Scenes of procedural grit sit awkwardly beside broad comedic beats — Fedora Man (Adam Best) leans into caricature, while the misogynistic-superior subplot feels imported from a cruder script. The "true(ish)" disclaimer is a wink, but the movie never decides whether it wants to be The Bank Job or The Guard. That indecision drains stakes from the third act, where Diana's "ingenious plan" arrives more as a screenwriter's contrivance than a character-driven breakthrough.

Performances: Eccleston and Madden Carry the Weight

The casting is the film's greatest asset. Eccleston's Crayford is a masterclass in restrained exhaustion — every sigh carries decades of compromise. Madden matches him with a Diana who's competent without being superhuman, her frustration with institutional sexism grounded in quiet fury rather than speechifying. Their chemistry develops organically: the early hostility feels earned, the gradual respect unforced. The supporting cast — Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as a slippery antagonist, Kerri Quinn's no-nonsense Inspector McClary — adds flavor but lacks screen time to deepen. Amy Molloy's Quinn and Ciaran Dowd's Kelly are functional cogs in a plot that prioritizes mechanics over texture.

Story and Pacing

The script moves briskly, perhaps too briskly. Key investigative beats are montaged, character moments truncated to serve the heist mechanics. The central twist — rendering the stolen cash worthless — is clever on paper but underexplored emotionally. We're told Diana's motivation is proving herself to bosses back home, yet we never see Australia, never feel that distance. The comedy often lands (a stakeout involving a disastrous takeaway order), but the drama demands weight the runtime won't grant. At 100 minutes, Chasing Millions feels like a miniseries compressed into a feature, leaving thematic threads — colonial legacy, institutional rot, the cost of obsession — dangling.

Who Should Watch

Fans of character-driven crime films will find enough to appreciate: two excellent leads, a fresh setting, and a heist premise that avoids genre clichés. Viewers seeking a tight, cohesive thriller may find the tonal shifts jarring. It's a film that's easier to admire in pieces than as a whole — a promising collaboration that doesn't quite catch the millions it's chasing.