Four stars. Rated PG-13, for considerable action violence and brief profanity
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 10.11.19
Nature … or nurture?
That provocative question is at the heart of Gemini Man, thanks to an unexpectedly thoughtful script from David Benioff, Darren Lemke and Billy Ray.
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| No matter where our heroes go — from left, Danny (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Brogan (Will Smith) and Baron (Benedict Wong) — the bad guys always catch up with them ... and quickly. How is that possible? |
“Unexpected” in the sense that — during the lengthy initial act — nothing about this high-octane thriller suggests that it’ll become so philosophical.
Considerable credit also goes to director Ang Lee — an Academy Award winner for Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi — who, at first blush, seems an unusual choice for such pell-mell spyjinks. But Lee has long been fascinated by angst-laden decisions thrust upon characters forced to confront long-dormant facets of themselves.
(On top of which, Lee isn’t adverse to the occasional action-laden blockbuster, having also helmed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hulk.)
This updated Gemini Man has virtually nothing to do with the bone-stupid 1976 TV show of the same name, wherein Ben Murphy’s secret agent Sam Casey had the power to turn invisible, but only for 15 minutes at a time, lest his radiation-induced talent kill him. The series deservedly perished after only five episodes, leaving behind nothing but the intriguing title that Lee and his scripters have developed into a far superior premise.
We meet Will Smith’s Henry Brogan — an ex-Special Forces sniper turned assassin for a clandestine U.S. government agency — as he calmly prepares for his current mission: an assignment he completes successfully. Back at home in rural Savannah, Ga., Brogan tells his long-trusted handler, Del Patterson (Ralph Brown), that he’s had enough.
Too many kills have left Brogan unable to face his own reflection in a mirror. He simply wants to build bird houses and fish the local waterways from his tiny boat.
We’ve seen this preamble many times before; we know full well that black-ops agents — particularly assassins — never are allowed to go quietly into that good night. And that’s true here as well.
But not in the usual manner.
An unexpected summons from former colleague Jack Willis (Douglas Hodge) leaves Brogan with doubts about the reason he was ordered to take out his final target. He considers possibilities while mildly flirting with Danielle “Danny” Zakarewski (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the perky, personable attendant handling boat slip rental fees. This meet-cute encounter blossoms into cordial early evening drinks; by the following morning, Brogan is on the run from ruthless killers, with Danny a reluctant companion.
Reluctant, but hardly helpless. She’s actually a Defense Intelligence Agency operative who served four years with the U.S. Navy in Bahrain; as such, she knows her way around weapons and hand-to-hand combat.
This character is wholly credible in Winstead’s capable hands, making good on the kick-ass heroine she played in 2016’s 10 Cloverfield Lane … not to mention the equally tough cookie she made of Nikki Swango, in the third season of television’s Fargo. Winstead exudes grit, determination, intelligence and resourcefulness; she’s also good with a mordant one-liner. She frequently pulls focus from Smith: no small feat.
Brogan’s fall from grace results from his inquisitive nibbling around the edges of a clandestine, off-book government project code-named Gemini: something clearly “bad,” based on the way agency higher-ups squabble about it. This part of the film’s script remains murky; we never learn how Gemini started, or why Del, Clay Verris (Clive Owen) and Janet Lassiter (Linda Emond) argue about it so much. (Have they been bickering for 20 years?)
The result, however, quickly proves calamitous. As Henry and Danny track down leads in Budapest and Cartagena de Indias, Colombia — assisted by Baron (Benedict Wong), another of Henry’s former colleagues — they’re relentlessly pursued by a supremely agile and intuitive killer who eerily anticipates and counters every one of Brogan’s thoughts and moves.
Under most circumstances, I’d shy from the next sentence in order to avoid the major spoiler, but since the film poster spills these beans, it seems fair game. Given that Gemini is the sign of the twins, Brogan’s relentless pursuer turns out to a younger version — a clone — of his own self.
Who, thanks to the jaw-dropping magic of Bill Westenhofer’s visual effects team, also is played by Smith. Sort of. “Junior” actually is a wholly fabricated digital creation: a far more advanced version of the tech that brought Peter Cushing back to life, in Star Wars: Rogue One. But that was little more than a fleeting cameo, whereas Junior (voiced by Smith) dominates this film’s entire second half … giving Smith the fascinating challenge of acting opposite a youthful self well remembered from TV’s Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Smith persuasively depicts the elder Brogan’s disorientation: a feeling we share. Lee and his filmmakers have taken yet another step forward, with cinema’s sense of wonder: They’ve depicted the actual emotional jolt — the shivery unease — resulting from the fascination and anxiety of confronting one’s younger self.
At which point, a film that has run solely on slam-bang adrenalin suddenly takes a smarter, more meditative turn, while the complexities of Junior’s personality are explored. To what extent is he a weaponized construct, trained to unwaveringly obey orders; and to what extent — if any — does he possess the (dare we say it?) soul that made Brogan who he is, at 51 years of age?
Thanks to the verisimilitude of Junior’s appearance and “acting,” and the degree to which Smith imbues each of this character’s selves with distinct and yet similar personalities, we wholly buy into the duality. Wondering what’ll come next isn’t merely suspenseful; it’s downright fascinating.
Owen makes a marvelous villain: one of those cultured, I-know-what’s-best megalomaniacs who, in real life (we hope), never gets anywhere near such a high-level government post. Wong is a hoot as Baron, a “fixer” able to call in an endless stream of favors. (Need a Gulfstream jet? No problem.) Brown and Hodge deftly sketch memorable characters out of minimal screen time.
Emond’s Lassiter, on the other hand, remains maddeningly under-developed. Her character is completely superfluous, present solely to confuse us viewers a bit, and to give Owen somebody to snarl at.
The stunt work is phenomenal, particularly an extended motorcycle chase sequence through the streets of Cartagena, assembled with pulse-racing snap by editor Tim Squyres. It also looks better — as does everything else — thanks to the fact that cinematographer Dion Beebe shot the film at 120 frames per second (as opposed to the standard 24 fps). The hyper-reality is more akin to watching events outside a window, rather than something projected onto a movie screen. There’s no motion blur.
Lorne Balfe’s propulsive score enhances the action even further. The result is all too rare these days; Gemini Man is a smart action thriller that invites spirited speculation when patrons exit the theater.
Starting with the big question: Where do we go from here, with respect to wholly fabricated actors?
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