newcritics

A friend and I joked that a lot of Angelina Jolie movies blend into one - you know, the one where she plays the tough badass… spy… who uses a lot of… knives and stuff… while wearing kickass outfits…

Quick, name the movie.

At this stage of her career, Jolie gives great movie star; that’s not necessarily the same thing as acting (which, I think, explains why her earnest attempts at such tend to fall flat, these days). And the apotheosis of her movie star presence may be Wanted, the movie where mostly, she just stands there, being badass Angie.

Based on a “graphic novel” (that’s “high end comic book” to us older folk), Wanted is one of those “dumb as a box of hammers” movies that can still thrill, mostly by keeping all of the hammers in motion.

Wanted is ostensibly the story of a group of assassins with an ancient history who recruit a shy neophyte mousy geek when his father is apparently killed. The neophyte, names Wesley Gibson (it’s always a Wesley) becomes a great fighter… and then learns his true identity.

And mayhem ensues, naturally. Wanted is directed by Tim Bekmambetov, a Russian director who made a stir with the films Nightwatch, and Daywatch, which also feature spectacular action sequences and a dark mythology (it’s something about vampires and an ancient battle between light and dark… which makes them the movies that the Underworld series should have been). Bekmambetov seems to now be the go-to guy for preposterous plotting (the ancient order of assassins in Wanted developed, I kid you not, from an ancient clan of… weavers. Looms - again, I kid you not - figure prominently in the plot).

Say what you will, Bekmambetov certainly knows how to play with his toys - Wanted contains dozens of bravura action sequences, that pump up the adrenaline level (that, apparently, is the mark of the assassin in this story - an ability to pun one’s heart super fast and cause an adrenaline surge at will). Not only that, but Bekmambetov also does an impressive job of creating a sense of dread about the whole thing - rarely have assassin flicks made random killing seem so present, and so grim.

Still, there’s a preposterousness to all of this that makes Wanted mostly kind of silly and overwrought. James McAvoy has become the latest pretty heartthrob to put himself at the center of these giant affairs, and he’s yet to show a real ability to carry the big pictures. That’s the case in Wanted, where his transformation from mousy geek to gun-toting badass never rings true (it was also the case in Atonement where his performance wasn’t big enough for the storyline). To be fair, it’s hard to see how almost any actor - especially these days when Hollywood is casting everything too young - could carry the absurdities of this script.

Well, except for Jolie. As Fox, the roughest, toughest assassin of the crew, she is, of course, flawless. Blessed with virtually no dialogue (and what she does say is incredibly weakly written), and mostly required to manage guns and knives with her usual flair, Jolie has presence for days, enough to give McAvoy some for their scenes together… and so, without her, things tend to go slack. Moreover, the weight of her star presence throws off the balance of nearly everything - not only are star actors like Morgan Freeman (really, what’s happened to him these days?) and Terence Stamp wasted in their “grizzled mentor” roles, their star qualities are overwhelmed by the leather clad vixen who really carries the pic.

One wonders, naturally, how long Jolie can sustain this kind of stardom; the roles are really starting to blend, the performances seem to be getting rote… and really, how many tattoos before one starts to run out of available space? There was a moment - back when she alternated Gia with thrillers like Hackers - that her badass presence made for some serious, subversive sexiness, as well as some memorable, impressive work. Wanted, as these things do, makes it all a cartoon, a CGI-doll with spike heels, wild hair, and bad attitude. As such cartoons go, Wanted lifts itself above the pack with Bekmambatov’s dark visions and thrill ride sequences. Whether that actually constitutes a recommendation depends, I guess, on how you like hammers. And Sweet Angie’s Badass Song.