Director: Steven Knight
Starring: Jason Statham and Agata Buzek
Plot: A homeless war vet assumes another man’s identity to try and get his life back together.
Review:
The UK’s Hummingbird gets a classic, boring DTV title of Redemption here in the States.
Redemption tells the story of Joe, a war vet suffering from PTSD and living on the streets of London. After getting in a fight with some thugs looking for what ever little money or drugs the homeless have scrounged up, he sneaks into a penthouse apartment. According to the voice mail, the resident will be in the US for the entire season, so Joe makes himself at home, cleans himself up, and gets a job busting heads for a local crime boss.
As the title clearly states, Joe is looking for redemption, so even thought he is cracking skulls and using his soldier expertise to forward the goals of some bad men, he is giving the money back to the people who need it. A nun who has given up everything to help the needy, including Joe at his lowest. The needy who constantly go to that nun for hot meals and medical attention. And of course, the wife and daughter that Joe had to leave because the PTSD and booze was making him a liability. At times, Redemption can be heavy handed, but as the directorial debut of the screenwriter of Eastern Promises, Steven Knight, it can key into moments of subtlety and restraint.
Hobo Jason Statham
This is an area that Steven Knight understands. These kind of noir thrillers often times rely on an outsider entering a criminal underbelly, that way, as they learn about the underworld, we (the audience, that is) learn about the underworld. This way the exposition feels a little less like exposition. It’s a nice technique for clarity, but it ends up painting everything with too broad a brush. Thankfully, Knight gives the audience some credit and crafts stories about characters who are already intimately involved in these worlds. We now get to observe this world through a veil of experience giving us context. It allows these alien elements to have more detail and nuance.
At the head of this story is notable kick-puncher, Jason Statham. Statham climbed to stardom pretty quickly. Guy Ritchie showed off his character actor screen presence and charm. When Hollywood got word that he also had some martial arts training and a go-getter attitude when it comes to stunt, he became a go-to guy to pull shitty action movies out of the dirt and into the guilty pleasure column. On his way up, he got in a few good roles here and there. Honest! London andThe Bank Job come to mind of his non-Ritchie roles. He certainly proved he could be more than just a talking roundhouse kick even if the industry and the audience kept begging for more of the same. With Redemption, he finds that balance between wheelhouse and challenge. Its clear what Statham would bring to the table of this occasionally violent crime story putting him on stable, confident ground allowing him to test his boundaries of sadness and anger, which I think he does a pretty admirably. He won’t be winning awards, but he is definitely going to surprise.
It is a strong (but flawed) directional debut for screenwriter, Steve Knight. He tends to make a lot of mistakes that other writers do for their first directing outing. A better director may have tightened the focus and arranged a better pacing structure, but Knight is really good at introducing new worlds and creating engaging characters with personal stakes. He shows enough potential that I would like to see Knight continue directing features. Same goes for Statham and taking on roles that aren’t just bruisers.
Rating: 8/10
What Else to Watch: In Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, based on the anime series, Cowboy Bebop, a character is plagued by visions of butterflies much in the same way Jason Statham is plagued by hummingbirds in this movie. Neither sounds all the terrifying, but once you see it, you understand how overwhelming it truly can be.
