He’s one of the greatest actors of his generation, so it should come as no surprise that Sean Penn is a very credible action star in The Gunman. The latest film from director Pierre Morel, who successfully reinvigorated Liam Neeson’s career in Taken, casts Penn as a black ops mercenary whose most shameful mission comes back to haunt him. It’s the sort of thing Morel could probably do in his sleep, and Penn could probably join him, but instead they pull out all the stops to make The Gunman a smart, socially relevant action thriller that goes above and beyond the usual run-and-gun nonsense.
And they more or less screwed that part up.
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The Gunman is too busy taking itself seriously to notice that it is, at heart, just a thriller. The screenplay, co-written by Sean Penn himself, shoves political commentary haphazardly into the action, and it’s just successful enough at raising our awareness of the political strife in the Congo that it stops being any fun. If anything, all the social context leaves The Gunman feeling a little ashamed of itself, like it knows in the back of its head that there are better things it could be doing instead of indulging in kick-ass action sequences.
When The Gunman operates purely as an old school thriller, it’s a pretty good one. Penn plays Jim Terrier, who assassinated a minister of the mines in the Congo years ago, and who now is targeted for termination. He attempts to reunite with his old teammates, most of whom have gone soft and corporate, to save their lives, and possibly discover which of them has betrayed him.
Javier Bardem plays one such wild card, Felix, who is now married to Terrier’s ex-girlfriend, played by Jasmine Trinca. It’s a little unclear as to which film Javier Bardem was making, but it’s better than the film everyone else working on. Felix is set up to be a proper James Bond villain, twisted and dangerous, but instead we discover that he’s a disgustingly weak human being, and only a threat to Terrier because of his jealous stupidity. Bardem plays the hell out of this character; he’s Oscar caliber in a film that’s anything but.
But eventually the plot must move on, and Javier Bardem disappears, leaving Penn to go shirtless (he’s been working out), shoot bad guys and wind up in a laughably elaborate climax set against the backdrop of a bullfighting exhibition. Morel shoots The Gunman slickly enough, and suspense sequences set in a claustrophobic bathroom or Terrier’s boobytrapped apartment work like gangbusters. Penn certainly brings an expected and welcome air of gravitas to the production, and Terrier is a more interesting character for it. He’s not just a thug with a gun, he’s a wounded animal who isn’t afraid to admit that he needs a cuddle and feels bad about biting you.
And then we’re reminded, once again, that The Gunman is oh-so-important and that we all have more important things to do than watch a fun action movie, because the world really is full of misery and pain. A little of that could have gone a longer way. The Gunman is too portentous to really entertain, even in spite of itself. There’s too much good work being done here to call it a misfire, but The Gunman still fails to hit the mark.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
