THE MECHANIC directed by Simon West, written by Richard Wenk and Lewis John Carlino from a story by Carlino, with Jason Statham, Ben Foster and Donald Sutherland. An Alliance Films release. 92 minutes. Opens Friday (January 28). For movie times, theatres, and trailers see Movies. Rating: NNNN
Jason Statham doesn’t stretch much as an actor. He doesn’t have to. His taciturn delivery and bullet-headed intensity make him the perfect star for the current amped-up trend in action movies. He’s a guy who gets the job done with ruthless efficiency, stopping to do the right thing only when he absolutely has to.
In movies like the Transporter trilogy, The Bank Job, the two Cranks and that remake of Death Race, Statham has refined this persona down to a nub. Now all we have to do is see him walk into a room in that coiled, predatory manner to know everything about him. He’s so focused, he negates the need for exposition.
A remake of Michael Winner’s 1972 actioner, which starred Charles Bronson and Jan-Michael Vincent, The Mechanic finds Statham squarely in his comfort zone, playing a no-bullshit assassin who helps a hotheaded youngster (Ben Foster) get over his father’s death by taking him on as his apprentice. What the hit man somehow neglects to mention is the fact that he killed the kid’s father.
Eventually that’s going to be a problem, but the movie takes its time getting there, spacing out the assignments to let its characters develop. The action sequences are nicely done, but they’re not the point of the film the movie’s real interest lies in the way Statham and Foster negotiate one another as men.
Simon West’s filmography includes the gleeful Con Air and the godawful General’s Daughter, but he’s working here at a slower boil than usual, trusting his actors to carry their scenes without anything blowing up in the background. Statham comports himself admirably, and Foster continues to develop that damaged-cherub thing he did in The Messenger.
I wish the script had been a little more finely tuned, though, and that Richard Wenk had found a way around a certain plot point that downshifts The Mechanic from unpredictable thriller to generic actioner in the final reel. It doesn’t ruin the movie, but it’s unnecessary – and the story’s themes of guilt and responsibility would have been much more interesting without it.
normw@nowtoronto.com
