07 May Wrath of Man Review

WRATH OF MAN

dir. Guy Ritchie, starring Jason Statham, Holt McCallany, Jeffrey Donovan, Josh Hartnett, et al

Some actors were born to work with certain directors. Think DeNiro and Scorsese, Jackson and Tarantino, Murry and Coppola. Such is the case with Jason Statham and director Guy Ritchie, who reunite for the first time in a decade and a half for Wrath of Man, the action thriller about a man who’s searching for the gang who killed his son. No one delivers Guy Ritchie zingers like Statham does, as proven in Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. But now, 15 years later, that dynamic has changed. This latest offering from the pair has stripped away all pretense of the fun and charm you’ve come to expect from both their bodies of work and delivers a grim, somber tale of revenge. Based on the French thriller Cash Truck, this is Ritchie’s meanest movie to date, played straight down the middle by Statham without a hint or snark or smugness.

The film is split into four segments: A Dark Spirit; Scorched Earth; Bad Animals, Bad; and Liver, Lungs, Spleen, and Heart. The film opens on the robbery of an armored cash car, the robbery gone awry due to an unseen event. The camera is purposefully placed in an inconvenient location, completely obscuring the driver of the armored car. As such, if the audience expects that to pay dividends down the road, it doesn’t. After the robbery, we’re introduced to Statham’s H, a gruff, manly, coiled ball of rage who applies to Fortico Security, the same company that experienced the opening robbery. While it’s obvious H is up to something, that something is revealed in the second segment, Scorched Earth. As events unfold, the third segment introduces us to our antagonists, a former military unit lead by Jackson (Jeffrey Donovan). Struggling for money, the unit plans The Big One at the Fortico headquarters, putting them directly in the path of H, who’s been trying to hunt them down ever since the first robbery.

Starring Jason Statham, Wrath of Man is largely his vehicle; he is front and center of the film as H searches for the man who killed his son. Quiet, stoic roles tend to suit Statham as they best suit his talents. That’s certainly the case here, and while Statham does a good job as the brooding, calculating H, his supporting cast leaves something to be desired. The main weakness of the film lies in its antagonists. Jeffrey Donovan as Jackson and his crew of ex-military ruffians are about as one dimensional as characters can be. Who are these guys? We’re told they’re a former military unit. How they get from military to money heisting criminals is never really fully explained, nor are any of them really explored. Try as Ritchie might, even giving us a peek into Jackson’s home life, the group of men seem more like a trope lifted from any ensemble 1980s war film than fully realized characters. The weakest link in the film is Scott Eastwood as Jan, a member of Jackson’s team. Eastwood is far from convincing as a tough guy, thanks in part to both his acting and weak writing. On the other hand, Josh Hartnett turns in a wonderful performance in the film, being the only character with any sort of growth and development. Transitioning from all bluster to a man of action with convictions, Hartnett’s Boy Sweat Dave (possible the most Guy Ritchie character name ever) is a standout.

Directed by Guy Ritchie, Wrath of Man eschews Ritchie’s signature stylized flourishes and instead settles for a no-nonsense film that lacks the humor and witty repartee he’s known for. Still within his wheelhouse of tough guys, amoral criminals, and psycopaths, the filmmaker instead chooses to forego his usual super-chatty characters, bouncy music, and frantic editing. His out of order style of storytelling remains as we jump between different time periods, seeing the inciting incident from three different perspectives. Using this Roshomon-style of storytelling is a clever trick at keeping the viewer’s attention as the exposition is laid out. The second act is where the film starts to lose momentum as we catch up on past events, introduce our antagonists, and lay the stakes for the final act. The action and violence of the film are at times hokey (if a character sees another character is wearing full body armor and is watching bullets bounce of that armor, maybe they shouldn’t waste time unloading a full clip at that person), but still entertaining enough to pass muster.

Overall, Wrath of Man may be jarring to fans of Guy Ritchie’s more lighthearted crime capers of the late 90s and early 2000s. Ritchie and Statham combining forces after a decade and half apart would be a delight to see if the source material wasn’t such a bleak affair. Just a minute shy of two hours, the revenge movie doesn’t have nearly as satisfying a payoff as others in the genre, mostly due in part to the weak antagonists and flimsy acting from Scott Eastwood. Lacking the frantic energy of other Ritchie films, Wrath of Man is just as muted as its main character. As such, for me, this ranks towards the bottom of the Ritchie filmography, an unfulfilled promise of the old gang reuniting for one last fun night out on the town. Wrath of Men is in theaters March 7th.

Review by Darryl Mansel