Timely and smart, Michael Cuesta’s American Assassin proves to be a worthy successor to the Jack Ryan
films. Based on the novel by Vince
Flynn, the author’s spy du jour, Mitch Rapp is the star of 16 different
political thrillers, so there’s more than enough material to draw from and with
Dylan O’Brien (Teen Wolf, The Maze Runner)
turning in a star-making performance in the lead, there’s no reason this
couldn’t spin off into a worthwhile series…depending on its box office take of
course.
Drawing from the 2015 terrorist attack in Tunisia, the film
opens with Rapp proposing on a sun-kissed beach to his girlfriend (Charlotte
Vega) who is soon tragically killed by a group of Jihadists. 18 months pass and our hero’s rage does
nothing but rise to a white heat as he trains himself to be a one-man wrecking
crew, planning to take out the terrorist cell and its leader responsible for
his fiancées death. However, just as he’s about to carry out his plan, he’s
intercepted by the CIA who deliver Rapp to Deputy Director Kennedy (Sanaa
Lathan) who proposes he join her team.
Hothead that he is, he’s reluctant to cross over but eventually he
agrees and is turned over to veteran Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton), who sands
off the kid’s rough edges…or so he thinks.
Once this duo hit the field with their team – their
objective is to track down a load of stolen plutonium – Hurley realizes pretty
quickly that Rapp is not the kind of agent that follows orders. He’s one of
those troublemakers who goes his own way, the type custom-made for movie
heroics and the young agent gets more than a few opportunities to show what
he’s made of. Three sequences that show Rapp besting his peers in training
simulations constructed by Hurley are imaginatively done and well-executed as
is a hotel rendezvous gone bad, a well-timed car chase and the film’s
conclusion that revolves around the results of a atomic bomb blast at sea. While these moments aren’t out of the
ordinary in films of this sort, Cuesta wisely lets the well-choreographed
action play out without trying to muddle things with multiple camera angles and
seizure-inducing editing. These
sequences are easy to follow and all the more thrilling because of this
approach.
Credit Keaton for bringing the sort of glint-in-the-eye zeal
only he can bring to a role, making his grizzled, battered character
simultaneously larger-than-life yet human.
The actor’s obviously having fun and it proves infectious. Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights) is good as well as the film’s villain, a
former protégé of Hurley’s who’s out to prove a point in a very big way, while
O’Brien proves himself every bit a movie star, dominating the screen when he appears
and pulling off the necessary derring-do with a sense of realism that
contributes to the movie’s authenticity.
To be sure, there really isn’t anything fresh at
play here but the story unfolds with such a sense of skill and economy that you
find yourself engaged with the story and characters despite knowing what to
expect. This may be a by-the-numbers
affair, but American Assassin is
pulled off with such style and professionalism, I wouldn’t mind seeing another
Mitch Rapp adventure hit the big screen.
This article appears in Sep 14-20, 2017.
