Photo by Joel Alblas
It’s been a full decade since 2005’s The Interpreter. In it, Sean Penn played opposite Nicole Kidman under director Sydney Pollack. That was the last time that Penn headlined a multiplex vehicle. Penn has often played characters with a macho edge to them. However, he has never appeared in an action thriller.
At 54, Penn plays the lead role in The Gunman, a quintessential mainstream action thriller. Was Penn inspired by the transition of Liam Neeson from indie film fixture to international action hero? The Gunman is directed by Pierre Morel, who helmed the movie that redefined Neeson’s screen image, Taken. Coincidence? Not likely.
Penn plays Jim Terrier, a mustachioed former Special Forces soldier who provides security for a mining operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo circa 2006. Neither Jim nor the viewer knows who the client is.
Jim has an alluring girlfriend, Annie (Jasmine Trinca), from an unspecified European nation. She’s an altruistic doctor providing free health care to indigent Africans. Does it seem likely that she would have some black ops type as her paramour? Jim’s boss, Felix (Javier Bardem) is a shadowy figure with a dubious set of motives. These seem to include somehow prying apart the smitten lovebirds, Annie and Jim. How can Felix possibly achieve this?
As footage plays in the background, news anchors detail the ongoing civil unrest that is taking place in the country. Insurgent rebels are battling the central government. The country’s abundant supplies of natural resources—in the form of diamonds, cobalt and copper ore—inspire rapacious appetites. Both sides commit rampant human rights abuses. Countless civilians are senselessly killed. Even more are displaced by these bloody struggles.
It turns out that Jim and his fellow security agents have a covert parallel mission. One of them will be tasked to assassinate the minister of mines. Again, it is unclear to them who the client is and why they would want the government official eliminated. No matter—these men, including Jim, are mercenaries. They need not concern themselves with such matters. Of course, Felix assigns Jim to do the dirty deed. Jim’s kill shot triggers chaos in the Congo. He must disappear into the wind and leave Annie behind.
The film fast-forwards eight years. Now, Jim is devoid of his cheesy moustache and drilling wells for an N.G.O. back in sub-Saharan Africa. Has a gnawing sense of guilt prompted Jim to experience an epiphany? Is he now doing good deeds to atone for his nefarious misconduct of the past?
One day, a cadre of killers inexplicably attacks the village where Jim is working. Although wielding only a shovel, Jim somehow overcomes these men, all of whom have automatic rifles.
Jim is convinced that he has been targeted for elimination. Why is he so sure? He just has an instinct about it. So, Jim travels to Spain, where Felix now lives and works as a consultant. Oh, by the way, Jim’s beloved Annie has now married Felix and they are about to adopt a baby. The film unsuccessfully attempts to account for how Annie could have married an obvious slime ball like Felix. It is one of the screenplay’s panoply of far-fetched contrivances.
The absurdities mount up. Felix incongruously invites Jim to join him and Annie for dinner at a fancy restaurant. En route to the dinner assignation, Jim pilfers a sports jacket off the back of a chair of a man who is eating alfresco. Somehow, the man never notices that his sports jacket has been lifted. Incongruously, the sports jacket of a random stranger is a perfectly tailored fit for Jim. When Jim arrives at the restaurant, Felix is stupefied as if he hadn’t issued an invitation. Annie is incensed. Why hadn’t Felix told her that Jim was still alive and would be joining them for dinner?
Numerous scenes feature a shirtless Penn. He displays a physique, which is remarkably ripped for a man well into middle age. However, many of these vignettes are gratuitous and ignore geographical realities. How does a scene of Penn surfing in the Congo advance the narrative? Admittedly, the country is not landlocked. However, it boasts no known surf spots. Moreover, Penn’s character is supposedly working in an inland village, not a coastal location.
Adding to its litany of flaws, the film is disdainful of any semblance of historical verisimilitude. It attributes a confabulatory history to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It also uses a Barcelonan bullfight for a backdrop of a 2014 scene, notwithstanding that the sport has been banned throughout Catalonia since 2012. Full of sloppy plotting and inane dialogue, The Gunman totally misses the target.
The Gunman
**
Sean Penn
Javier Bardem
Directed by Pierre Morel
R
