James Nunn directs a low-budget crime film with a simple yet effective rescue plot, set in an East London ravaged by brutal gangs.
Ada (Kate Beckinsale) is a single mother living in East London with her adorable deaf daughter, Charlotte (Isabelle Moxley). However, she has a dark past, and in "Wildcat" we first meet her not while taking the children to school or at a parent-teacher meeting, but in the middle of a high-stakes diamond heist.
Director: James Nunn
Writer: Dominic Burns
Stars: Kate Beckinsale, Lewis Tan, Rasmus Hardiker
In this passable film from director James Nunn and screenwriter Dominic Burns, she leads a small, quirky group comprised of her attractive American ex, Roman (Lewis Tan, star of "Mortal Kombat"), her reliable partner, Curtis (Bailey Patrick), and her vulnerable brother, Edward (Rasmus Hardiker), who will later be insensitively but deservedly given the nickname Looney Tunes.
The main plot of "Wildcat" is not unusual: a loved one is kidnapped, and the hero must complete a difficult mission to save them, even if it means returning to a life he's tried to leave behind. The particular family dynamic adds an original touch to this scheme, although the project as a whole never strays too far from the established rules of the action-crime genre. The settings are mostly fairly routine within the context of the British underworld, though a spicy twist is added with a side mission to a kind of elaborate brothel/club with BDSM undertones, run by a sensual rival named Cia (Mathilde Warnier), at the point in the narrative where we would normally expect to find a seedy strip club.
The dangerous East London housing estate where all this supposedly takes place, while convincingly imagined, is largely fictional. After all, there are no areas of London with that many abandoned buildings; in fact, this type of territory would soon be teeming with pop-up food trucks and redevelopment projects. There are echoes of "The Warriors" in the street gang that turns the area into a no-go zone for the police, while the more traditional gang leaders, played by Alice Krige and Charles Dance, are closer to the archetypes of British gangster heritage. Dance, in particular, earns his place in the credits with a characteristically sinister and patrician performance in perhaps half a day of shooting on a single location. Even so, he's always a pleasure to watch.
Also worth mentioning is Tom Bennett, who proves invaluable in a supporting role as a beleaguered acquaintance with whom the gang temporarily takes refuge for about a third of the film. Whether stealing the show as the quintessential fool (the opposite of Beckinsale) in Whit Stillman's Jane Austen adaptation, "Love & Friendship," or having a rough time riding dragons in HBO's "House of the Dragon," Bennett is always highly entertaining and deserves leading roles in more prestigious film projects. (Something from the "Knives Out" franchise, perhaps?) Here, he manages to imbue even the most mundane lines ("If it was an option, why didn't you do it half an hour ago?") with comedic magic.
For audiences eager to see a Guy Ritchie film, but who have somehow exhausted the prolific director's catalog (or perhaps are subscribed to the wrong streaming service), "Wildcat" should satisfy their cravings. Whether it's worth seeing in theaters is another question, and one that won't need answering in many territories. The natural habitat for this kind of production value is home viewing, where mature dialogue can do the heavy lifting and low-budget CGI explosions don't have to endure the scrutiny of the big screen.
Comments
Post a Comment