The Foreigner
⋆⋆ out of four stars
Rated: R, violence, language and some sexual material.
Legendary action star and martial arts maestro Jackie Chan gets his "Taken" moment with the terrorism thriller "The Foreigner," directed by frequent Bond director Martin Campbell. Chan is a man seeking vengeance for the death of his daughter in a bloody London bombing. His counterpart is a grizzled former 007 himself, Pierce Brosnan, growling his way into a meaty and morally ambiguous role as former IRA member and Irish Deputy Minister Liam Hennessy, attempting to politick his way around the aftermath of the bombing, which is claimed by a rogue IRA cell.
Adapted from Stephen Leather's novel "The Chinaman," "The Foreigner" is only so-titled because the alternative would have caused an outcry. Chan's character, Quan Ngoc Minh, is referred to as "the Chinaman" throughout, even though he's Vietnamese. Despite its literary origins, the film feels a bit like a writer tossed darts at a board labeled with aging action stars and various terrorist groups and just decided to make it work. Jackie Chan vs. the Irish Republican Army? That could work.
Chan's role is brooding, serious and simple. He wants names. Names of those responsible for his daughter's death. Rebuffed by the police and government, he relies on his old bag of tricks, developed in the jungles of Vietnam, honed by U.S. Special Forces. He detonates homemade bombs with notes just reading "NAMES" all around the environs of deputy minister Hennessy's stamping grounds of Belfast. He plants nasty jungle traps, ensnaring Hennessy's thugs. All just to get some face time with the minister. These bombers certainly messed with the wrong dad.
Chan, now in his 60s, isn't the energetic tornado he once was, but he's still got it. His fighting style in the film is brutish, resourceful and extremely effective. Brosnan is the talker, deploying his suaveness, talking out of both sides of his mouth to British politicians and his cabal of former (or are they?) IRA militants.
It's refreshing to see Chan in a more serious role, but he isn't given much to do. When he isn't in motion, he stares vacantly, communicating his shock and trauma, his character merely a violent automaton.
There's a lot happening in "The Foreigner." One sequence intercuts Chan being stalked through the forest by Hennessy's special ops soldier nephew, while Hennessy chats with the British police who are surveilling him with drones, while also torturing the truth out of one of his own pals. Meanwhile, a likely terrorist seduces a reporter. So why does it feel so dull?
