‘A Working Man’ REVIEW: Statham and Ayer’s Round Two
‘A Working Man’ REVIEW: Statham and Ayer’s Round Two
PICTURE 1: Jason Statham as Leven Cade / Still from the official trailer
In the January of last year, action star Jason Statham and director David Ayer struck unexpected gold with The Beekeeper, a seemingly straightforward action thriller whose whiffs of schlock ultimately won over audiences, grossing over 100 million dollars at the box office on a 40 million budget. The charm of its iconic lead star and the undeniable allure of entertaining carnage against villains that represent the greater societal systems that affect us all (to which Ayer himself ascribes a certain everyday charm to Statham, as if he’s just some normal guy) ultimately carries over to the director and actor’s second team-up together, A Working Man. Based on Chuck Dixon’s 2014 novel (and a part of a long-running series) and with Statham’s Expendables co-star Sylvester Stallone as a screenwriter, the action-movie faithful may be pulled in hoping for a second inning of primal fun. Unfortunately, this particular outing yields a case of diminishing returns.
If you are somewhat immersed in the canon of action cinema or paperback thrillers (like myself, who have read more than my share of airport novels for kicks), you’d find the premise of this to be overtly familiar. Construction worker Levon Cade (played by Statham) spends his days working his shifts and caring for his fellow employees, his boss Joe (a sadly underused Michael Peña), and his boss’ family, the Garcias.
All the while, he struggles to make ends meet in the midst of a custody battle for his daughter between him and his deceased wife’s father, whose unsubtle dialogue hammers home Levon’s dilemma: his violence-filled past follows him around. As a former military black ops soldier, his past skills and experience have left Cade with more than a few emotional hang-ups, including the suicide of his wife which he and his daughter still grieves.
When Joe’s daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas) gets kidnapped by human traffickers while out for a party, he and his wife enlist Levon’s help, offering a hefty sum to bring out his old skillset once more. While initially reluctant out of refusal to embody the person he abandoned, his crushing familiarity with the extent of familial love leads to him diving deep into the depths of a criminal underground to save Jenny. And of course, there will be bodies strewn along the path.
While yes, you could possibly think of several other films reading that plot outline (even other films that Stallone is involved in, such as Rambo: Last Blood and its equally preposterous criminal stereotypes with unfortunate implications), that alone isn’t necessarily a death knell for entertaining action. Instead, it goes to the bizarre lack of energy and awareness of its tone that the potentially pulpy thrills get nullified to mere specific moments of bodily hurt.
This film doesn’t really make use of any sense of momentum to propulse itself to a near 2-hour runtime, primarily in how solemnly it takes itself. There are individual aspects and parts here that sound interesting on paper — Leven interacting with an interconnected web of colorfully-dressed criminals, Jenny’s determinant attitude in her captivity causing more than a few problems —but it never really has a chance to be really fun. Instead, it can’t help feeling like it’s being strung along by a sub-par script leading to a predictable ending. It isn’t incomprehensible, but it sure is boilerplate to a fault.
PICTURE 2: Jason Statham (left), Michael Peña, and Noemi Gonzalez (right) as Leven Cade, Joe Garcia, and Carla Garcia / Still from the official trailer
At the very least, when the action does arrive, it is riotously brutal in a way that you’d wish most of the movie was. Statham has always been great in selling the air of gravitas in his violence and this film is no different, straddling the line between one-man killing machine and a potentially outmatched veteran in over his head, though the ratio mostly leans on the former in a way that doesn’t feel cheap. The kills are brutal and direct, with the sound design being shockingly visceral to really sell their impact. Both of these aspects fully coalesce in the film’s final act and inarguable peak, centered on a multi-stage set piece filled with violent dispatching and bodies thrown like ragdolls, all under the backdrop of one of the biggest full moons in cinema this year. All of these are not enough to forgive the unfortunate stretches of monotony, but the body count does indeed not slouch.
Ayer directs the film with a juxtaposition of seedy grime within a mainstream sheen, alongside a soundtrack that emphasizes the deeper emotions the script couldn’t convey by blaring it dramatically every other scene. It isn’t fair to consider his direction bland, since the smoothness does carry the slack more often than not, but it doesn’t feel as zeroed-in as his direction for The Beekeper and that film’s subtle, yet noticeable nutball energy.
Statham is as good as always, and while most of the cast doesn’t make themselves stand out from their pre-ordained roles, we do get at least some interesting charisma from choice characters; such as Arianna Rivas’ Jenny and Isla Gie as Leven’s daughter Merry, who surprisingly provides some decent amount of deadpan humor and humanity in her short scenes.
PICTURE 3: Jason Statham as Leven Cade / Still from the official trailer
A Working Man is exactly what the marketing advertised — Jason Statham annihilating those in his way for a personal vendetta. But aside from the gleefully brutal intermittent bursts of carnage, there isn’t much substance beneath the surface. While there’s much to appreciate when a work goes for simplicity, without a sense of flair or energetic propensity, the calories here feel a bit more empty than they are supposed to be. Your mileage may vary on whether the trade-off is worth it to see Statham work his magic, the bright shine of the pyrotechnics overshadowing the lethargy of what should be a meat-and-potatoes potboiler.
A Working Man is now showing in Philippine cinemas through Pioneer Films.
