Susan Granger’s review of “The Gunman” (Open Road)
Since Sean Penn’s name is above the title – and he’s also credited as co-writer and producer – this globe-trotting thriller qualifies as a vanity project, designed to propel him into Liam Neeson territory as another aging-but-tough action hero.
Set in 2006, the prologue introduces ex-Special Forces mercenary Jim Terrier (Penn) and his idealistic doctor girlfriend Annie (Jasmine Trinca), living in the Democratic Republic of Congo. When his supervisor Felix (Javier Bardem), who has the hots for Annie, dispatches Jim to kill the DCR’s Minister of Mining (Clive Curtis), he’s forced to flee the country, leaving Annie behind.
Eight years later and suffering from head trauma, Jim wearily returns to Africa on a water project and discovers that now he’s been targeted for assassination. The obvious suspect is Felix, now married to Annie, but it could also be his former boss Cox (Mark Rylance), as dangerous hitmen pursue him London to Gibraltar to Barcelona.
(While there’s a climactic showdown at a bullfighting ring, the closing-credits acknowledge that bullfighting has been banned in Catalonia since 2012.)
Based on Jean-Patrick Manchette’s 2002 novel, “The Prone Gunman,” it’s been adapted by Don MacPherson, Pete Travis and Penn. French director Pierre Morel (“Taken,” “Transporter”) makes sure that it reeks with an all-too-familiar, mucho macho reality. Not surprisingly, scantily clad Italian actress Jasmine Trinca is given a purely ‘reactive’ role. It’s a gritty, generic ‘guy’ thing from the get-go.
In recent years, two-time Oscar-winner Sean Penn – for “Mystic River” (2003) and “Milk” (2008) – has devoted himself to social activism – a politically-aware passion made obvious with topical tirades on the plight of refugees, atrocious corporate-government collaboration and a plea for a global humanitarian awareness.
But he’s not above stripping for showering and surfing, deliberately revealing bulging biceps and an impressively buff torso.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Gunman” is a predictably tiresome 5, filled with bloody fistfights, formulaic shoot-outs and picturesque chases, signifying very little.
