Saturday 21 March 2015

THE GUNMAN

Starring: Sean Penn, Jasmine Trinca, Javier Bardem
Writers: Don MacPherson, Pete Travis, Sean Penn
Director: Pierre Morel

*** THIS REVIEW CONTAINS A SPOILER ABOUT SOMEONE IN THE FILM GETTING BUMPED OFF BUT IF YOU DID SEE IT YOU'D PRETTY MUCH GUESS WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN TO THEM THE MINUTE THEY DECIDE TO....OKAY, LET'S JUST GET ON WITH THE REVIEW ***

It's 2006 and security contractor Jim Terrier (Penn) creates political chaos in the Congo when he participates in a mercenary operation which ends in the assassination of the Minister of Mining. Forced into hiding, his past comes back to haunt him whilst working on a well-drilling project for a charitable organisation and he has to track down whoever wants both him and his ex-colleagues dead.

Firstly, let me say that Pierre Morel directed the first - and by far the best - of the Taken movies and with Penn on board I was hopeful that this would be an accomplished mix of socially conscious, twisty political thriller and blazing action movie. Unfortunately this doesn't really work as either. The plot isn't exactly labyrinthine, Penn working out what's going on via a few contacts and very little digging, whilst the action sequences are certainly competent but nothing special.

The movie also squanders the considerable talent it has at its disposal. I was ready to see Javier Bardem giving a kick-ass performance but he's given a terribly underwritten role here which disappoints on pretty much every level. It's always good to see Idris Elba but his Interpol agent shows up (very late in the film, I might add), speaks in annoying metaphors about tree houses and then vanishes, offering absolutely bugger all in the way of help. Considering the Interpol guys seem to think that Penn's character is vital to bringing the bad guys to book they're quite happy to let him plonk himself in lethal situation after lethal situation and it's this kind of slack plotting that kept disengaging me from the film.

Credit to Penn; he's a fine actor and he tries his damnedest here, plus he's been at the gym and got himself all buff for this one. His jaw-droppingly developed biceps almost have a character of their own (Mrs Deej commented that Popeye would be envious) and they're focused on at every single opportunity. Problem is, although he looks the part and convinces as the guilt-wracked central character, he's not served at all well by a script which delivers nowhere near the required amount of intrigue and features some genuinely clunky dialogue. The supposed spark between Terrier and former love Annie (Trinca) doesn't exactly set the screen alight either, mostly because their relationship is given just a few perfunctory nods as the plot trundles along and the audience is more or less supposed to take it on trust that these two were meant for each other. As for Ray Winstone, he's criminally wasted. And he's criminally wasted. Sorry about the spoiler there.

That said, it's not a total washout. There are good moments in the film, some of the location work is attractive and Mark Rylance (another really good actor - this movie's bursting with them) looks like he's enjoying playing a very shady associate of Terrier's but the whole shebang culminated in a ho-hum scrap and shootout that fell a long way short in terms of the thrills I would have expected. It's the climax of the movie, people! Come on, I want to be excited instead of checking my watch thinking "this must be it, there's less than ten minutes to go".

So, to conclude, there are things about this film to enjoy, most of them involving either Penn or Rylance. It's just that there's so much of it that doesn't hit the target (dreadful assassination-related play on words intended) I can't recommend you should rush out to see The Gunman.

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