WANTED

A movie like this is a bit of a paradox. Perhaps even a mystery wrapped in a paradox, sealed inside an enigma. It’s pop, it’s exciting, and it’s fun. It’s also silly, copycat-ish, and meandering. Therein lies the rub – leaving a movie fan like me wondering what to make of it. Well what I think of it is equally layered in contradiction:

WANTED isn’t a great movie – but WANTED is certainly a cool movie!

The story is based of Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy). Wesley is an office drone of such little consequence that Google-ing his own name results in no matching hits. He’s broke, a walking punching bag, has a girlfriend who cheats on him, and a best friend who does the cheating with her. In short – he lives a meaningless existence. He also suffers chronic anxiety, and one night while refilling his medication at a pharmacy, his meaningless existence suddenly becomes very meaningful.

Cutting in front of him is a stunner named Fox (Angelina Jolie), and she lays out a very short and very direct story. Wesley’s father was an assassin. He’s been killed, and the man who killed him is standing directly behind him. As if on cue, an aggressive gunfight breaks out between Fox and the unknown assassin, leaving Wesley alternately cowering and scrambling for cover. After a wild car chase, Wesley is convinced Fox is telling him the truth, and follows her back to the headquarters of the Fraternity.

The Fraternity is a league of assassins that has been secretly operating for 1000 years – think of them as Robin Hood’s merry men, but better armed. Their leader is a man named Sloan (Morgan Freeman) – a Morpheus-like man who wants Wesley to join their mission, and ultimately avenge his father’s death. Having never held a gun in his life, let alone fired one, Wesley is understandably reluctant. However, Sloan is insistent, believing that the Wesley must have his father’s talent inside of him somewhere. The only trick will be tapping into it. After a great scene where Wesley considers going back to his hum-drum life, he agrees and begins to learn the way of The Fraternity.

Sounds like fun right? For the most part, yes, but it takes a while to get there. For much of the first half-hour, the movie drowns the audience with style. Trippy camerawork, quick cutting, slo-mo tricks…all of it very cool, but feeling very excessive so early on. Much of the first hour is also spent watching Wesley’s training – a montage which feels like every training montage I’ve ever seen before. Actually, that’s not true – part of his training includes sessions with The Repairman. I’m still unclear on what The Repairman was trying to achieve, other than repeatedly beating Wesley to a pulp.

However, once WANTED gets into its second half, it starts to have a bit more fun. We start to see what the assassins can really do, fulfilling the tease we see in the opening scene. The assassins exhibit Matrix-like qualities, able to use the laws of physics in amazing ways to get to their targets, kill their targets, and get away. There is a rather high “Yeah, Sure” factor, but that’s part of the fun. During much of this bang-bang stretch of the movie, I couldn’t help but think that WANTED was the sort of movie John Woo might have made…and I mean that in a good FACE/OFF sort of way, not in an overblown WINDTALKERS way.

I recently read that James McAvoy seems to be working his way up the A-List with his ability to choose great parts. I’m not sure how high he’ll be able to climb, but WANTED should work pretty well to serve as a coming-out party for those who find films like ATONEMENT and LAST KING OF SCOTLAND far too arty. He’s a versatile actor, on a pretty good winning streak, and well worth checking out if you’ve never seen any of his previous films.

As for Angelina, there isn’t much I can say about her because in this movie she’s playing the same part she’s played in any movie where she’s cast as a gun-toting badass. She works it well, looks cool in every scene she’s in, but that’s about as far as she goes. To be fair though – the story doesn’t require her to go any further than that, so her thin performance has zero to do with her acting prowess.

One other thing worth noting is that the film is pretty violent. On several occasions the slayings are on the slow and bloody side. They’re all more stylized than truly gruesome, but still – be warned (Indeed the movie is 18A in Canada and R in the US). In a sentence though – sloppy but so cool. It could have been better – and with talk of a sequel, that may still come to be – but it was two hours well spent for my summertime dollar.

Matineescore: ★ ★ ★ out of ★ ★ ★ ★

What did you think? Please leave comments with your thoughts and reactions on WANTED.