Safe House has two powerful performances at its core, a hectic plot, a huge body count and a mild sense of dj vu amid the pulse-quickening tension.Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds have terrific chemistry as two men linked by their CIA affiliation, and the slick story has moments of breathless excitement. But it occasionally stumbles by putting Washington too frequently in observer mode. Sometimes he provides a much-needed sense of calm, but in other scenes he’s confined to the sidelines, while Reynolds’ character focuses on a rather dull romance with a French medical student (Nora Arnezeder).Reynolds plays Matt Weston, a low-level CIA “housekeeper” in Cape Town, South Africa, in charge of a covert safe house where suspects are taken by CIA operatives to be interrogated, and sometimes tortured, to induce them to talk.Washington is Tobin Frost, the agency’s most notorious traitor. His superb performance suggests deep reserves of knowledge and his character comes off as both world-weary and wry. It’s as if he embodies the Elvis Costello line: “I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.”As the idealistic Weston, Reynolds is pitch-perfect. He goes from bored rookie to an anxious guy in way over his head and trying desperately to keep up. He even gets roughed up believably, as his handsome features get scratched up and are overtaken by beady-eyed wariness.Their paths cross when Frost turns up in Cape Town after years of eluding authorities. Within the first minutes, we see him cleverly conceal an all-important computer file, mysteriously elude a sharpshooter’s bullet and escape from a horde of nimble assassins. Then he mystifies everyone by turning himself in at the U.S. Embassy.From there, Frost is brought to the house managed by Weston. Shortly thereafter the house comes under siege, and the only two who survive are Frost and Weston.Determined and principled but untested, Weston whisks Frost off, determined to turn him over to CIA brass. High-adrenaline chases ensue, as do double- and triple-crossing. Frost is an expert manipulator, but Weston, an ambitious Yale grad, does his best to remain in charge. Their story becomes one of mentor and protg as the trust-no-one atmosphere crescendos.Director Daniel Espinosa seems to have borrowed a page from Bourne franchise director Paul Greengrass’ book. But where those thrillers are consistently suspenseful with taut, intricate plots, Safe House’s weakest point is structural. It builds up to a rather anti-climactic resolution that should be more politically complex.Still, Espinosa directs with flair, particularly during a chase that involves Washington jumping across shanty roofs, dodging bullets.It’s a familiar tale of conspiracy and corruption at nearly every level, as well as idealism shattered. But told as it is with energy and verve, Safe House is a bracing action thriller made all the more watchable because of its two lead performances.