The Sunday Mail
Tinashe Kusema Big and Small Screen
SO Christmas has come early for Jackie Chan, and we all couldn’t be happier! Three months ago, while publicising his latest film “The Foreigner” on the Steve Harvey Show, action star Jackie Chan made a heartfelt plea over his apparent depiction in Hollywood.
His main grievance was that he is type cast as nothing more than an action-comedy guy.
“In American audience, I think half the world, people only know Jackie as doing action-comedy. I’m getting older, I cannot be fast enough. Look at the history, how many action stars still survive right now?
“As a true actor, you can live forever, look at the likes of Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood . . . They can act and they can fight, but they use blue screens and stunt doubles. If I am to continue to do my own stuff, I will very quick disappear (sic),” he said.
Chan’s message was as clear then as it is now after sitting through the 114 minute flick; the guy just wants to be taken seriously. It is a story we have all heard countless times, but one that deserves to be told over and over again.
“The Foreigner” is a British-Chinese thriller that chronicles the tale of Ngoc Minh Quan a former Vietnam War Special Forces operator turned London restaurateur, who looks for revenge after his daughter is killed in a bombing.
The film is based on a Stephen Leather novel called “The Chinaman”, with Chan taking up the mantle of Quan who witnesses his daughter’s death when a bomb explodes in a department store she enters to buy a dress.
Rogue members of the Irish Republic Army (IRA) claim responsibility, bent on fracturing relations between Ireland and Britain, leading Quan onto the door steps of Liam Hennessy (Pierce Brosnan), a former IRA member turned politician.
Hennessy is now the Irish deputy minister, who has a lot of skeletons in his closet, things that lead Quan to believe that he is responsible for the bombing that killed his daughter. Quan begins to stalk Hennessy, threatening him, blowing his properties and killing his henchmen.
Now, this film is not perfect by a mile and is littered with many inconsistencies and weakness. The IRA sub-plot that was a key element of the book is clearly outdated for the movie. Ireland and its “storied history” to the world is technically what Canada is to the Americans.
For the millennials, out there, one of would have to Google to find relevance of the subplot. It also doesn’t sit well that despite being a key figure in both the marketing and film’s appeal, Jackie Chan’s Quan character has no real significance to the film’s numerous plots. If you remove him from the film, everything that happens will happen, rendering the character mute. That said, two people make this film appeal and that is Pierce Brosnan and Jackie Chan.
While Chan could use a little work with his facial expression and craft as a whole, it is quite refreshing to see the 63-year-old “actually act”. This is not to say that, he doesn’t beat people up or do some lavish stunts; our first reaction is not to laugh whenever he does.
Brosnan, on the other hand, completely steals the show. Much like his co-star, he too desperately needed the change in pace after being labored with the whole James Bond character, which he perfected up until he left for Daniel Craig.
He is Irish, so his accent was in line, not need for praise on this one, Brosnan steals the show in every scene he features and surprisingly demonstrates great chemistry with his co-stars in particular Jackie Chan. I loved the whole anger and fear combo in the third act when Chan’s Quan character confronts Hennessy to give him a final ultimatum.
Given both men are well into the sixties, 63 and 64 to be exact, Chan and Brosnan let their acting chops rather than bodies do most of the story telling.
Much like in the trailer, the few fight scenes and action sequences were well choreographed and executed. Almost everyone has some sort of skeletons in their closets and it ends up being quite a guessing game, trying to find out who actually is the mastermind of the entire thing.
My second guess was on point, not that I want to brag.
