Having just watched this with my family, I commented at the end that it felt more like a student filmmaker's thesis, as opposed to a full-length feature film. After reviewing the director's bio, I think that comparison can be safely made. The director, Jesper Ganslandt, is a Swedish film maker whose credits to date consist of 3 music videos for the Swedish pop/dance group Alcazar; 2 short films; a semi-autobiographical film (Falkenberg Farewell) in which the director and other cast members portray people with the same names as the actors,and which takes place in Falkenberg, Sweden (Mr. Ganslandt's birthplace); a documentary about an unknown Swedish topic; and 4 feature films, including this one. With that in mind, the film was fairly well acted, in my opinion. I found Sean's (Daniel Radcliffe's) reactions to be fairly believable, given his circumstances and relative helplessness, while DEA agent's are typical of someone who's trying to climb the corporate/bureaucratic ladder (not caring who gets hurt in the process), and Mallory's actions are those of someone who's just carrying out a job (Mallory is an "troubleshooter"/assassin for a third group). Mallory has been tasked with kidnapping Sean's wife, Jen, to ensure "compliance. He's not sadistic about it, although it would have been easy to write him that way; instead, he's cool and professional, calmly informing Sean of what will happen to Jen if compliance is not met. I did have a few (minor) quibbles with the story though, even keeping in mind the looseness of the plot. First, I disagreed with the simplistic ending Mallory meets at Sean's and Jen's hands; instead of simply drowning Mallory; use the last 2 bullets in your gun (received earlier) to SHOOT the SOB!!! Sean and Jen end up bum rushing Mallory and holding his head under water; how often have we seen "death" faked that way? If you're close enough to hold his head under water, put those last 2 bullets in HIS HEAD and MAKE SURE he's not faking!! Also, the final scene is one where Sean's watching Jen and a toddler (who the audience is led to believe is their daughter) cross the street to meet them in an unnamed location. Without spoilers, how did they get there, where IS "there", and how did they finance this move? I felt this ending left the story open to a future (hopefully better written) sequel.

Poor Daniel Radcliffe finds himself between an aerial rock and a hard place in director Jesper Ganslandt's "Beast of Burden" as a DEA informant who is flying contraband narcotics from Mexico across the U.S. border. A dishonorably discharged USAF pilot who has cut a deal with the Feds to rat out the cartel, our conflicted hero Sean spends most of his time airborne struggling to sort things out. If he cooperates with the DEA, he can get medical help for his ailing wife. The Cartel and the DEA keep exerting pressure on him as he flies through stormy weather. Far from being heroic, Sean is sympathetic, but he has gotten himself into a quandary from which he cannot extricate himself. The pressure mounts but "Beast of Burden" becomes a beastly burden more for the spectator than for our hero. Despite its minimum 90 minute run time, this tiresome movie seems to drag on forever. Whatever potential this intriguing saga had, it loses by confining itself primarily to Sean in the air. Clearly, whether they knew it or not, "Beast of Burden" resembles the Tom Hardy movie "Locke," but the Hardy hero was admirable whereas the Radcliffle protagonist is far from admirable. The worst thing about this awful law and order movie is that you know everything is either shot with miniatures and/or green screen. We're this not bad enough, Ganslandt jumbles the action in non-linear fashion to heighten the action, but it just adds to the confusion. Skip this shallow, second-rate saga.

Why do they keep making films of one guy talking on the phone?

Sean (Daniel Radcliffe) is transporting drugs in a small aircraft in a storm to get his wife medicine. The drug runner is the protagonist. He has issues with his wife and the dealers as we watch him chat inside his flight simulator. The boring scenes are interrupted by occasional flashbacks and later by on the ground scenes. Pretty boring stuff.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.