Katia Winter star in this understated, psychological thriller about a British operative who ends up having to confiscate a negative from a freelance photographer of a picture he took of her in order to remain as a ghost from those who are seeking to kill her. In the process, both she and the reluctant photographer find themselves on the run. Directed by Joshua Caldwell who also directed Be Somebody (2016), a comedy romance drama that also happens to echo a similar understated tone and offers a refreshing diversion into a more realistic interplay between characters that Negative presents. Negative together with Jennifer Lawrence in Red Sparrow (2018) and Daryl Hannah in The Job (2003) allow female assassin or professional agents that emphasize the psychological drama over the intensity of special effects, explosions, and action scenes of over the top mass killings or hand to hand combat in a choreographed martial arts. At the same time, the sustainability of audience's interest is made much more difficult, especially with the marketing of Negative's trailer with emphasized the action portion of the movie much to the disappointment of a good segment of the audience.
The more authentic characters in this movie provide the audience with a more thoughtful movie about human character though the movie struggles to balance the tension along with the somewhat superficial assumption of how these two people are so easily followed. Other similar movies have been able to incorporate rather more stylized plots or characters in their own psychological drama versions of this genre such as The Numbers Station (2013), The Tailor of Panama (2001), The American (2010), and Eye of the Needle (1981) or comedic versions of this genre such as Miss Meadows (2014), The Matador (2005), Wild Target (2010), Daisy & Violet (2011), and In Bruges (2008). Negative instead remains faithful to its depiction of what might be considered authentic humans whose live intersect in psychologically traumatic ways and how they individually and collectively cope with it.
