A bit off-key

UNLOCKED

NOOMI Rapace has yet to find a role to equal her dynamic breakout performance in the original version of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” (2009). This unremarkable thriller isn’t it, although the Swedish actress gives a gamely committed performance as Alice Racine, a traumatized CIA interrogator trying to thwart a terrorist attack in London.

If you squint, “Unlocked” seems like it ought to be more entertaining, given its talent roster: Michael Douglas, Toni Collette and John Malkovich all play Alice’s fellow agents, but none can rise above the expositionheavy dialogue (“It wasn’t your fault. I was your chief back then, so I know.”) and clunky plot. Director Michael Apted, critically acclaimed for his “Up” documentary series, directs this screenplay from first-timer Peter O’Brien in the style of TV crime procedurals, plodding from one set piece to another.

There are, at least, shades of the superior “Homeland” in Rapace’s back story: She’s racked with regret and guilt over failing to thwart a Paris attack years earlier. Pulled back into service to stop a new plot involving the release of a Russian biological weapon, she discovers there’s a mole in the ranks.

Orlando Bloom shows up as a sketchy ally for Alice — or he’s meant to be sketchy, yet Bloom radiates all the menace of a golden retriever. Malkovich has the most fun as the CIA chief — one Skype call sees him gleefully mouthing profanities while Collette’s MI5 character, on the other end, isn’t looking — but overall, everyone’s working too hard at hitting their marks in a march toward a conclusion that’s predictable and laughable.

Running time: 98 minutes. Rated R (profanity, violence). Now playing.