Wrath Of Man (2021)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
Jason Statham is back headlining an action film and he remains as cool as the other side of your pillow.
Guy Ritchie’s mystery, suspense film is a heist movie with plenty of reveals and twists to keep viewers engaged and on their toes with what may come next.
A violent, shades-of-gray-style film which calls to mind a 1990s throwback vibe and is full of characters and motivations of questionable morality.
NO
The film is a bit long in the tooth at 118 minutes, and may bore some people in a final act embracing violence as a means to wrap up themes and storylines.
Honestly, this is a movie we have seen before. Lots and lots of times before.
Some of the film’s dialogue (especially an all-too easy reliance on misogyny and gay panic humor), and the way it handles the one main female character, is going to not sit so well with some viewers.
OUR REVIEW
Jason Statham mumbling is performance art. Maybe mumbling isn’t the right way to put it. He’s louder than a murmur, stronger than a mutter. Statham doesn’t recite his dialogue in Wrath of Man, the words just kind of hum in formation, before being spit out to the world in a gravelly, soft-spoken rumble. At this point, Statham’s acting is performance art – and he’s kind of amazing at it.
So while I, and maybe others, obsess over Statham’s innate ability to say little to nothing and keep viewers hanging on every utterance, Wrath of Man arrives as the fourth film Statham appears in directed by Guy Ritchie, the first they have made together since 2005’s Revolver. A remake of 2004 French film, Cash Truck (La Convoyeur), their reunion sprays a fresh coat of paint on a heist film premise that is shopworn and threadbare and makes this latest endeavor both too much and not enough at the same time.
Too much in that the film runs a bit long at nearly two hours. Not enough in that Ritchie gives in to some indulgences and largely abandoning a fun, intriguing set of events to devolve into a perspective-shifted, non-linear, gun-toting shoot-‘em-up in the final act. If anything, Wrath of Man feels overthought, but for the most part, it can be, admittedly, a pretty entertaining ride.
Statham stars as H, a new hire with Los Angeles-based cash delivery company Fortico. After grunting his way through the hiring process, he is mentored by the amiable Bullet (Holt McCallany). Though he gives Bullet next to nothing to work with from a personality standpoint, they maneuver through H’s training and he becomes a man of mystery among his new co-workers. Keeping everything about himself close to the vest, and saying 20 fully formed words a day, H becomes a curiosity people don’t quite know what to do with.
Fortico moves millions of dollars in cash and goods to different places every day, which somehow makes them a constant target for attempted robberies and attacks. Seriously, if there’s a complaint about the premise of this movie: Fortico is laughably bad at what they do and might be the worst run company in Guy Ritchie’s America.
Nonetheless, when faced with the latest robbery attempt, H calmly dispatches more than a half-dozen bad guys. His demeanor never wavers and he instantly becomes a hero in the eyes of Fortico’s rummy, buffoon of a CEO (Rob Delaney).
As we will learn, there is more going on with Fortico than we initially realize. This delivery/robbery/delivery/robbery premise gives Ritchie and Statham ample space to stage impressive action sequences and begin building a compelling cinematic experience.
On the other hand, misogyny and gay panic humor runs amok. And there’s really just one woman in the entire crew, Dana (Niamh Algar), who naturally sees her scene of character development tied around sleeping with someone. Ritchie unabashedly embraces the 1990s attitudes which clearly inspired the throwback nature of the film. For some viewers, they will ignore all that and care not that the screenplay Ritchie has written with collaborators Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies relies on such tired, dated, worn-out clichés. That feels a bit problematic.
Commonplace in Ritchie movies, are enigmatic supporting characters and Statham is surrounded by an odd mix of them this time around. Josh Hartnett seems to be in a completely different movie than everyone else, playing a character named (checks notes) “Boy Sweat Dave.” Eddie Marsan pops up as a reliable Ritchie go-to and Andy Garcia shows up to talk on his cell phone a couple of times. We even have Post Malone (yes, that Post Malone) playing (checks notes again…) “Robber #6.”
By the time the movie works through its chapters (ugh), and we begin to understand more of who H is and what exactly his purpose of working at Fortico happens to be, Ritchie and his writing team tap into something intriguing and fun. Wrath of Man excels when it becomes a mystery of sorts, and Statham gets to build a character through much of the film’s middle portion.
As we learn more about H, we get swept up in the dust storm of violence, betrayal, and deception Ritchie conjures up. Jeffrey Donovan and Scott Eastwood arrive in the second half of the movie and amplify the stakes considerably. Eastwood, in particular, is quite captivating in portraying a dangerous, reckless ex-soldier; a consequential loose cannon of a character Ritchie should have explored more.
In the end, Wrath of Man becomes an inventory of what could have been, what we have been given, and what we never receive. Moments are exhilarating, others are disappointing. Some characters are ridiculous, others who are perhaps more interesting get left behind. Ritchie feels somewhat restrained here, but he ultimately gives into his unfocused, unsettled mind and makes the movie shift to a non-linear element, with different scenes shown from different perspectives.
While I am not sure the movie needed that shift, in the end we still have Jason Statham spit-barking his way through a meandering story, bringing this thing across the finish line. Flaws and problematic elements acknowledged, Wrath of Man delivers enough entertainment value to make this worthwhile for anyone at all interested in seeing Ritchie and Statham pair up in a gritty, action-heavy heist flick.
CAST & CREW
Starring: Jason Statham, Holt McCallany, Jeffrey Donovan, Josh Hartnett, Scott Eastwood, Rob Delaney, Laz Alonso, Raúl Castillo, Rocci Williams, Eddie Marsan, Niamh Algar, Alex Ferns, Deobia Oparei, Eli Brown, Josh Cowdery, Jason Wong, Babs Olusanmokun, Lyne Renée, Andy Garcia, Austin Post
Director: Guy Ritchie
Written by: Guy Ritchie, Marn Davies & Ivan Atkinson
Based on the film “Cash Truck (La Conveyour),” written by Nicolas Boukhrief and Éric Besnard
Release Date: May 7, 2021
MGM/United Artists Releasing