Review: The Gunman

 Sean Penn is a former special forces contractor who was the trigger man for an assassination of a politician in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He hasn’t quite recovered from this, nor the fact that he had to leave the love of his life (an aid worker played by Jasmine Trinca) behind to go into hiding. Several years later and he is back in the DRC, but this time doing aid work there to atone for his supposed sins, when it appears someone wants him dead. He figures it has something to do with the work he and his special forces buddies did all those years ago, and sets about tracking them down to find out just who the hell is doing this and why. Meanwhile, he seems to be suffering post-concussion headaches that are really doing a number on him. Nonetheless, he takes a trip to Barcelona to see former comrade Javier Bardem, who promised to take care of Trinca in Penn’s absence, and ended up marrying her. It’s a tense reunion to say the least, as Bardem doesn’t look especially happy to see Penn. Mark Rylance plays another former comrade now a corporate suit working for their former contractor, whilst Ray Winstone plays a trusted friend of Penn’s who helps out, and Idris Elba has a cameo as a shadowy figure who seems to want to reach out to Penn. What’s his deal?

 

I don’t know what Sean Penn is doing in a Pierre Morel (“Taken”, the campy but kinda fun “From Paris With Love”) action-thriller, but the talented actor is by far this 2015 film’s strongest asset. Scripted by Pete Travis (“Dredd”, director of the snazzy thriller “Vantage Point”), Don MacPherson (1998’s notoriously awful “The Avengers”), and Penn himself, you assume he had something to say here, but it’s nothing particularly memorable or worthy. In terms of shedding light on a bad situation, it’s about as profound as say, the fourth “Rambo”. In other words, a little more meaningful than the average action film, but only just. It’s much more of a traditional action-thriller than I would’ve expected from the normally more indie/art-minded Penn. It could easily have starred Steven Seagal and have been a straight-to-DVD/VOD film. It’s certainly of the latter day Seagal quality, seriously average and beneath Penn’s talents for sure. It’s clichéd, ancient piffle that hasn’t even been done terribly well. I mean, even the love triangle in the film is so familiar they may as well have given Bardem’s role to James Woods for cryin’ out loud. I was waiting for Phil Collins to start singing. It’s tedious, and Academy Award winners Javier Bardem and Mark Rylance call way too much attention to themselves in poorly-judged supporting performances (Jasmine Trinca is out of her depth in a pretty important role, too). I normally love Bardem, but he strikes every wrong note at once in this, and Rylance is just ridiculously hammy from his first moment on screen.

 

Good performances by Ray Winstone, Idris Elba (far too briefly) and particularly Penn aren’t nearly enough to elevate this one. You’ve seen it all before, you know where it’s going, and so you end up spending way too much of the film twiddling your thumbs. I’ve often felt Penn takes himself far too seriously and I prefer entertainment over art for the most part. However, I’m shocked at how empty and generic this is. Well, OK, the bad guy getting gored by a bull is probably not generic, but it’s not good either.

 

Penn is rock-solid, but this is one of the most disappointingly bland films of 2015. I hope that extension for your summer house pleases you, Mr. Penn, but how about a better script next time?

 

Rating: C