Jason Statham is a throwback movie star.
Icons like John Wayne knew what fans expected of them and kept delivering film after film. Today, comic actors yearn to do dramatic work and serious stars stretch for comedies.
Statham isn’t doing Shakespeare anytime soon, nor is he eager to reinvent himself. He delivers bone-crunching action on demand, from last year’s “Beekeeper” to his latest, “A Working Man.”
The action yarn is meatier than previous Statham affairs. Just when you think the story will offer new layers to his brand he settles for standard-issue mayhem. That’s frustrating, but let’s hope Statham’s intensity never goes out of style.
The action film, based on Chuck Dixon’s long-running Levon Cade series, casts Statham as a man who can’t escape his past. His soft-spoken character once broke bones as a former Royal Guard warrior. Now, he’s content to work construction for a family-owned business.
Simple. Clean. A dearth of dead bodies en route to work.
He’s paid a stiff price for his killing ways, like losing custody of his adorable daughter Merry (Isla Gie). He hopes life as, wait for it, a “working man” will let her back into his life.
That plan ends when his boss’ adult daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas) goes missing. The police appear helpless or hapless – take your pick. Levon owes everything to his employer (a barely used Michael Peña), a virtual second family to him.
So Levon puts down his construction helmet and goes to work, the kind of work that brings the pain. Yes, there will be Russian gangsters, sex trafficking and more.
You don’t have to read the credits to sense something totally ’80s about “A Working Man.” Levon can take on a battalion of armed-to-the-teeth baddies and emerge triumphant.
Remember that Reagan-era warrior John Rambo?
Yes, Sylvester Stallone co-wrote “A Working Man,” and the icon’s knack for loner heroes dominates the frame. Add director David Ayer, who just worked with Statham on “The Beekeeper” and doesn’t have a fussy bone in his body.
They’re a perfect match for the material.
Levon is endlessly patient in his pursuit of young Jenny. He’s part detective, part bloodhound, and he’s never intimidated wherever he ends up.
That’s part of Statham’s appeal. The rest? He’s 57 but moves like a 30-year-old, refusing to age in a genre that often pummels older stars. Just ask Daniel Craig, Liam Neeson and Keanu Reeves, all of whom have asked the inevitable question.
Am I getting too old for this [bleep]?
For Statham, the answer remains, “not even close.”
Ayer understands Statham’s appeal and what audiences crave from his handiwork. Yes, the action is intense and satisfying, but in the quieter moments, the actor’s empathy shines through. We saw that in “The Beekeeper” when his hero avenged a senior citizen bilked out of her life savings.
Here, he’s a doting dad who desperately wants to leave his killing ways behind. Life has other ideas, and that’s good news … at least for us.
The film’s colorful villains punch up the story, but they also clash with the grittier elements on display. Statham’s Levon Cade isn’t a superhero, even if he can dispatch a small army at will. He’s a hand-to-hand combat kind of guy, and that skill is never pretty.
Some discordant elements spoil the fun.
Why introduce a live wire like the blind but resourceful Gunny (David Harbour) if you’re not going to give him more screen time? Perhaps the film’s franchise potential offers an unspoken answer.
The screenplay downplays the sex trafficking angle, reducing some of the dramatic stakes.
It’s also frustrating to consider how “A Working Man” might have tweaked the Statham formula. Levon craves a normal life after years of bloodshed, but circumstances drew him back into the fray.
What if he missed all that death and destruction on an instinctual level?
Statham is a good enough actor to suggest that duality. “A Working Man” is too busy following the star’s bulletproof brand to consider those layers. Statham is here to punch the clock, break some bones and prep for his next action assignment.
No complaints there.
HiT or Miss: “A Working Man” delivers mostly what Jason Statham fans expect, but it misses the chance to dig deeper into his screen persona.
