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During the course of his distinguished career, Sean Penn has only very infrequently taken the lead role in a straightforward genre piece that is directed squarely at the audience that frequents multiplex theaters. He has never really accepted a role that required him to be a two-fisted, gun-toting hero in a conventional action film narrative. This is because he has never really taken on such a role. Since his most recent movie, “The Gunman,” calls for him to explore both of those relatively unexplored areas, there are likely to be some moviegoers who are intrigued to find out what it is about this particular project that piqued his interest, not only as the star of the movie but also as a producer and co-writer of the screenplay. Unfortunately for them, his motivations will appear just as unclear after the end credits have rolled because this is the kind of completely faceless and unremarkable film that barely would have passed muster as a mid-2000s DTV project top-lining a third-tier TV star. This is unfortunate for them because it is the kind of film that could have starred a third-tier TV star. Before settling into a third act that forces Penn to appear in some of the silliest scenes of his career — and when I say that, keep in mind that I once paid cash to see “Shanghai Surprise” during its brief theatrical release — the film lurches from one mundane scene to the next. The third act is where the film finally finds its footing.
This story of international intrigue, for lack of a better term, kicks off in the year 2006 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where Jack Terrier (Penn), a former member of Special Forces, is working as a security advisor for a mining company. He is in the country to investigate the disappearance of a miner. In his spare time, he engages in the kind of shadowy covert work that businesses are willing to pay large sums of money to have done off the books. He does this work with a small group of associates. His most recent assignment has him carrying out the murder of a powerful minister in the country’s mining ministry. When the deed is finished, Terrier is forced to flee the country, leaving behind his much more admirable aid worker girlfriend Annie (Jasmine Trinca), without a world of explanation, as a result of his actions, civil war breaks out throughout the land. Eight years later, a newly ennobled Terrier has returned to the Congo in order to legally assist the locals by digging wells for a non-governmental organization in between officially forbidden surfing excursions. When he is attacked by three thugs who have been sent to kill him and to bring back fifty cc’s of genetic proof of his demise, he begins to form the hypothesis that his long-buried past has come back to haunt him in addition to other ways.
After the ambush, Terrier takes a flight to London to start his investigation into who might want him dead. He does this by contacting his former teammates to see if they might have any information on the matter. Others have done well for themselves, despite the fact that two of the characters have passed away and one of them, Stanley (Ray Winstone), is content to drink away his days. Cox (Mark Rylance) is now a top executive at the company that contracted them for that fateful job, and Felix (Javier Bardem) is not only a high-powered businessman based in Barcelona with vague notions of corporate philanthropy, but he is also now Annie’s husband. From there, the action moves to Spain and Gibraltar as Terrier avoids any number of setups and shootouts in order to uncover the truth. This leads to a climactic game of cat-and-mouse that is set amidst a bullfight in Barcelona, which is odd given that Barcelona has officially banned the sport as of 2012. Terrier is also suffering from brain trauma as a result of his former life, which is currently affecting his memory and which threatens to incapacitate him further if he does not stop the daring-do and take it easy. As if all of that wasn’t complicated enough, Terrier is also suffering from brain trauma as a result of his former life.
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At least for the first two-thirds of the film, “The Gunman,” which is based on the 1981 pulp novel “The Prone Gunman” written by Jean-Patrick Manchette and has the admittedly awesome title of “The Prone Gunman,” is rudimentary beyond belief. The director, Pierre Morel, is responsible for the action sequences, but he doesn’t bring the same grace and style to them that he did to the larger set pieces in his previous films, such as “District B13” and “Taken.” These fights, on the other hand, have the hurried, “let’s get this done” vibe of a television series that is running one or two days behind in its production schedule. Those other fights were like beautifully orchestrated ballets of brutality. Penn, Don MacPherson, and Pete Travis offer up a boilerplate narrative in which the motivations and actions of pretty much all of the key characters can pretty much be figured out within the first couple of reels, leading to an unavoidable sense of dramatic wheel-spinning, and the occasional attempts at adding a sense of political awareness to what is otherwise an unabashedly pulpy storyline are more off-putting. To fill in the blanks between the shootings, stabbings, and beatings
The Gunman Quiz
The conclusion of the movie, on the other hand, derails entirely due to a number of bizarre narrative decisions that are presented in rapid succession. The first involves the unexpected appearance of Idris Elba in the role of a mysterious Interpol agent who provides Terrier with some covert assistance in his search. That is fine, but what makes the scene so absurd is that he presents his offer in such a willfully obscure manner — there is an extended and not-too-clear metaphor about a treehouse — that it begins to feel like a scene straight out of “Top Secret!” rather than a scene from a drama that is supposed to be taken seriously. That is fine. Even sillier is the big climax at the bullfight, which takes place when people are running around the crowded arena waving their guns willy-nilly without anyone noticing, a tortured visual link between Terrier and the bull is awkwardly established, and bad guys are eliminated in ways that are so ridiculous that I found it hard to believe that anyone involved with this project could have thought that they could have worked dramatically.
Also, you will find out which character are you in this The Gunman quiz.
Penn’s “The Gunman” is a combination of a vanity project and an apparent attempt to reinvent his career in the same manner that Liam Neeson did under Morel’s guidance in “Taken.” Morel directed both of those films. Penn has turned in some terrible performances over the course of his career (anyone who has seen “I Am Sam,” “All the King’s Men,” or “Gangster Squad” can attest to this), but at least he was committed to those roles, which is more than one can say for the listless performance he gives here. The movie gives us as many trips to the gun show as it does gun battles, and while he is certainly fit enough to take on the persona of an action hero—between the surfing scenes and the numerous moments where he takes off his shirt to show off his ripped arms—the movie gives us as many trips to the gun show as it does gun battles—the persona of a two-fisted ass-kicker is simply not one that fits him. How could the same guy who wrote and directed a film that was as fascinating and morally complex as “The Pledge” (which is one of the best films of the 2000s that you have probably never seen) come up with something this simplistic and think that it was worth doing? From a screenwriting perspective, the by-the-numbers approach is even more bewildering.
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You will be lucky if you remember anything about “The Gunman” a couple of weeks after seeing it, but it will probably go down as one of the more disheartening ones because of its waste of a gifted cast (good actors like Bardem, Rylance, Winstone, Elba, and Trinca have been brought together and then given nothing to do that is interesting), a normally effective choreographer of cinematic chaos, and a potentially provocative premise. “The Gunman” is not the This is not to say that Sean Penn will never be able to make an impact as a credible and successful action star; after all, he is still one of our most talented actors and an accomplished filmmaker. However, after this missfire, to borrow a phrase from “The Spanish Prisoner,” it is time for him to go back to the range.Also, you must try to play this The Gunman quiz.
For more personality quizzes check this: Selfless Quiz.
