The name Pierre Morel may not be familiar but you know his work. He's the French action director who helmed one of the greatest genre films of the last twenty years in District B13, and he also directed a little film you may know called Taken. Yes, the guy who helped Liam Neeson transition into a late-stage action hero is back trying to do the same thing with Sean Penn in The Gunman. Penn is a terrific actor, one of the best working today, but it's going to take a much better film than this to muscle in on Neeson's lucrative territory.
Penn doesn't sign up for that many projects nowadays, so when he whiffs the breeze is strong enough to knock over the Oscars on his shelf. The Gunman is just such a film because there doesn't seem to be a clear idea of what it intends to be. Penn produced and helped develop it himself based on the noir novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette, and one can see why he'd be interested initially. A known humanitarian, Penn was likely attracted by the story's backdrop against the political unrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But the film doesn't really have anything to say about it, other than to clumsily flash stock footage of massacres, rioting, and international news coverage.
With Morel at the helm this was never going to be more than a dumb shoot 'em up and...well, dumb it certainly is. Penn plays mercenary Martin Terrier, who is hired by an unknown client to assassinate th Congo's Head of Mining. The job done, Martin must flee the Congo and go into hiding. Unfortunately he has to leave behind his do-gooder girlfriend Annie (Jasmine Trinca), who winds up in the arms of Martin's friend Felix (Javier Bardem), who planned everything so it would work out that way. Years later, Martin is now an aid worker trying to atone for his sins when suddenly he becomes a target for assassination. Somebody has dug up the past and Martin can't be allowed to live.
Unfortunately,Martin is also suffering from some kind of post-traumatic stress that manifests in debilitating headaches. These occur, as you probably guessed, at the most inopportune times but add nothing in terms of dramatic tension. They are simply a gimmick meant to spruce up what is a fairly run-of-the-mill conspiracy flick that never really gets moving. The story jet sets us to London and Barcelona, all places Morel is more than comfortable shooting, but they have never been presented in such a bland manner. Even the action, which is normally Morel's greatest strength, is portrayed in a very generic manner.
Even the cast proves to be a disappointment. The nuance Penn brings to his performance is better than the lousy screenplay deserves, and that's another reason why The Gunman is such a let down. Penn deserves better than a movie that is more interested in his workout regiment than his ability to portray a believable human being. For what it's worth, the 54-year-old Penn has never looked better, and every opportunity is taken to show off his guns. Bardem, on the other hand, is so over-the-top he may have just stumbled off the set of The Counselor. At least he's actually given time to be terrible, though. The heavily-promoted Idris Elba is around long enough to spout some nonsensical babble about treehouses before slinking off to be forgotten. At least Jasmine Trinca, an accomplished Italian actress, seems to recognize what a dog The Gunman really is. You can see the pleading look in her eyes as she's dragged from one unexciting chase to the next, but sadly she doesn't get away before some guy gets gorged by a runaway bull. There's a runaway bull in The Gunman for some reason. That guy got off luckier than the rest of us.
Rating: 1.5 out of 5
