We’ve not had a high-profile, Tom Clancy-esque espionage thriller since the COVID lockdown began last year, and they’ve been missed.
Too bad this one — debuting on Amazon Prime — isn’t more promising.
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| After learning more about CIA agent Robert Ritter's (Jamie Bell, left) duplicity, John Kelly (Michael B. Jordan) gets understandably hot under the collar. |
It’s not merely that the clumsy, muddled Taylor Sheridan/Will Stapes script has virtually nothing to do with Clancy’s 1993 thriller, beyond swiping its title. Director Stefano Sollima and cinematographer Philippe Rousselot compound the problem by staging many of the melees and action sequences in dark-dark-dark settings, so it’s often difficult to discern good guys from bad guys, and who’s doing what to whom.
I’ve always regarded that as a lazy affectation; it’s also irritating.
And a shame, because this film does offer solid acting talent and — in fairness to Sheridan and Stapes — reasonably engaging supporting players.
Events begin in war-torn Syria, where John Kelly (Jordan) leads a team of Navy SEALs on a covert mission to rescue a captured CIA operative. But the CIA spook calling the shots — Jamie Bell, as Robert Ritter — has been less than candid; to Kelly’s dismay, he realizes they’ve invaded a nest of Russian mercenaries.
Later, back in the States, revenge comes swiftly; several members of Kelly’s team are murdered by masked Russian assassins, and he barely escapes with his own life.
While he convalesces and re-builds his strength via intense physical therapy, Kelly’s friend and former SEAL team member, Lt. Commander Karen Greer (Jodie Turner-Smith) meets with Ritter and U.S. Secretary of Defense Thomas Clay (Guy Pearce), for what she expects will be a discussion of response options. To her dismay, Ritter insists that nothing be done; the situation now is “tit for tat,” which is where it should be left.
Raise your hand, if you think Kelly won’t settle for that.
(He doesn’t.)
First as a rogue operative, and later with support from Greer and the remnants of his SEAL team, Kelly tries to determine who issued the “kill passports,” along with who else might be involved. Initial skirmishes eventually lead to Murmansk, Russia, where — in true Clancy tradition — a Huge International Conspiracy is revealed.
Unfortunately, the details of this are so fuzzy, that we’re never entirely certain of the nature of said conspiracy. Double- and triple-crosses don’t help much; rather than enhancing anything approaching a comprehensible plot, each episodic set-piece seems little more than an excuse for Kelly to execute low-level baddies.
Jordan handles this with élan; he sells revenge quite persuasively. And even when the script’s dialogue slides into cliché, he delivers his lines with total conviction. He’d obviously be terrific with better material. (Just in passing, he’s also awesomely buff.)
Turner-Smith’s Greer is just as engaging: spit-and-polish stoic as a professional soldier, calmly practical and sympathetic when clandestinely sharing intel with Kelly. Turner-Smiths’ standout moment comes early on, when Greer coldly challenges the weaselly Ritter; her steely gaze indicates she’d love nothing more than to rip off his limbs, and feed them to him.
The best detail: Greer never raises her voice. She doesn’t need to; Kelly aside, she’s always the biggest bad-ass in the room.
Bell is equally accomplished, as a guy we love to hate. Ritter is such a self-serving ferret: all smirk and condescension, caring for nothing — not even loss of comrades — beyond the righteousness of his mission of the moment.
Pearce, resplendent in perfectly tailored suits, smoothly wears the mantle of authority.
Luke Mitchell, Jacob Scipio, Cam Gigandet, Jack Kesy and Todd Lasance make the most of thin material as, respectively, SEAL team members Rowdy King, Hatchet, Webb, Thunder and Dallas. Aside from dropping occasional quips and functioning as a well-practiced unit, there’s not much to distinguish one from the next.
Lucy Russell has a bewilderingly fleeting role as CIA Director Dillard. She’s not only irrelevant to these proceedings; Russell looks as though she forgot her lines.
The many melees are well choreographed by stunt coordinator Doug Coleman and editor Matthew Newman; it’s a shame there’s frequently not enough light to better appreciate their efforts.
Jon Thor Birgisson’s monotonous, so-called score, little more than thunderous synth shading, brings nothing to the party.
This film concludes with the obvious indication that Jordan’s rogue agent will return. Let’s hope it’s under better circumstances.
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