Wrath of Man

Wrath of Man
Starring Jason Statham, Holt McCallany, Jeffrey Donovan, Scott Eastwood
Directed by Guy Ritchie

There are some directors who work with the same actors over and over, creating a rapport and a sense of ease between director and actor that helps in delivering a powerful product. Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. Adam McKay and Will Ferrell. Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. Then there's Guy Ritchie and Jason Statham, who've worked together in classic British crime-caper-dark-comedies "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," "Snatch," and "Revolver," and who team up once again for "Wrath of Man." Ritchie even found Statham literally on the street and started his film career, so the two have a deep sense of respect and admiration for each other, which helps in creating more personal, powerful films. While "Wrath of Man" has some very bright shining moments, however, it's somewhat muddied by Ritchie's desire to play with time and elongating certain moments that didn't need to be.

Hargreaves (Jason Statham) is the boss of a masterful theft ring, but things go terribly wrong when an armored car that his group was staking out is ambushed by another gang of thieves - thieves who are more polished and put together - resulting in the murders of the two truck drivers as well as Hargreaves' son, who was an innocent bystander. Hargreaves himself is shot and left for dead, but not before he sees the man who shot him and killed his son. Months later, Hargreaves and his men are unable to find who was behind the heist, and concludes that someone on the inside at the armored car company is behind it, so he goes undercover as Patrick Hill to find the mole and uncover the men who killed his son and left him for dead.

Guy Ritchie is best known for his British films, and he's hardly ever traveled across the pond to direct an American-centric film, with "Wrath of Man" being one of the rare exceptions. As such, it's missing some of Ritchie's trademark moments (the jumpy scenes, the darkly comedic lightheartedness of unexpected moments, the typical narrator explaining what's happening to the audience), and instead we're given a very dark, noir film style that works for the most part in providing a rogue's gallery of bad guys, and not many good ones. Even our protagonist isn't technically a good guy, a flawed man who's only out for revenge and will stop at nothing - and eliminate any obstacle - to get it done.

Jason Statham is the perfect choice for such a role, a versatile actor who's best known for his action prowess, and here he plays the perfect blend of calm, collected and cool as well as calculated and stoic. He easily dispatches a group of wannabe thieves with absolutely no emotion, like Jason Voorhees dispatching his victims with no remorse, giving him a legendary status at the company. His fellow workers either fear him or respect him, and he easily earned the respect of all of them, but he isn't there to make friends - he wants to find the mole in the company and flush out the gang who murdered his son. He has no emotions. He has no lightheartedness. He is all rage, all vengeance, all wrath.

While the film is almost two hours long, there's not a lot of down time, but there's certain scenes that could've been cut to make a more lean film. Also, Ritchie plays with the concept of time to not make a wholly linear narrative but flashes back months ago and then months later, days back and days forward, leaving you a bit confused during certain moments when the events are happening in the overall timeline, and the real bad guys aren't even introduced until midway through the film. When we meet them, they're your typical former-soldier-turned-mercenaries due to their lack of respect after returning from war, who commits these heists for their family, as they plan one final heist that'll set them for life (obviously, this goes off swimmingly).

The final act is a bloodbath of biblical proportions, and something wholly in Ritchie's wheelhouse. It's wholly enjoyable in its delectable depravity, filled with exciting camera work and enough bullets to arm a small country. Typically this is the main reason to see a film like this, but there's a bunch of goodwill being made that leads up to this moment that makes it all the more impactful, as minor characters we got to see before this event get capped in ways that leave us actually feeling bad for them, despite not even knowing their names. The supporting cast (specifically Holt McCallany, Jeffrey Donovan, Josh Hartnett and Scott Eastwood) all have bright shining moments in the film and gives their characters more development in the end than they did at the beginning - meaning until the final denouement you don't feel any real connection to them, but then you find out that you really did all along. Then again there's Statham who anchors the entire project in a role that's incredibly nuanced and polarizing: he's not a good guy, but he seems like one. He's easily the one you root for, even if you're wondering why you're rooting for him in the first place.

Shedding some of his traditional filming styles, Guy Ritchie forms a new noir heist thriller with "Wrath of Man," which isn't the perfect film but easily keeps your attention with thrilling twists, turns, and shootouts, all under the more-than-capable performance of Jason Statham.

The Score: A-