AT THE MOVIES WITH KASEY BUTCHER
I went to the movies last weekend and came down with a major case of deja-view. I saw Man on Fire starring Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning and I found myself pretty sure I had seen this movie before. Hasn’t Denzel already played a character willing to die for a child he loves? Hasn’t Dakota already played a smart and spunky rich little girl? Don’t most action movies focus on the hero who will kill anyone it takes to get to the truth and/or revenge? Yes, yes, oh gee, yes again.
Man on Fire tells the story of an ex-soldier, Creasy (Washington, Out of Time), hired to protect the young daughter, Pita (Fanning, The Cat in the Hat), of a wealthy family in Mexico City, where there is a kidnapping every hour. Creasy has resigned himself to a life of booze and sorrow until the girl befriends him, slowly drawing happiness back into his life. Creasy, who originally insisted that he was hired to protect Pita, not be her friend, ends up loving the little girl. Creasy’s newfound happiness is brought to a screeching halt, however, when Pita is kidnapped on the way out of her piano lesson. Creasy does everything he can to stop the kidnapping, even taking several bullets and killing several dirty cops, but Pita is abducted as she runs to Creasy’s side. Pita’s parents agree to pay the ransom to get their daughter back, but something goes wrong in the delivery and the money is stolen and the kidnapper’s nephew is killed. After this, Pita is allegedly killed as well, but no body is delivered. Once he is released from the hospital, Creasy vows to avenge Pita and uncover the truth about her abduction. He goes on a killing spree, gaining more information through each victim. In the end, Creasy disregards the safety of his own life, making Pita his only concern.
Let’s talk about disappointment. When I saw the previews for this movie I was very excited. It looked thrilling and interesting, and it featured two incredibly talented actors. When I saw this movie, it was thrilling, but it was about an hour too long and featured two incredibly talented actors in mediocre roles.
The story line is good, and it does keep the audience on edge, but it is strangely two-faced. It starts out somber and introspective and almost at once turns into a violent action movie. The violence was also too drawn out. Instead of taking an hour to kill those involved one by one, in great detail, the killings could have been condensed to about twenty-minutes of shorter scenes.
The acting is also good, but unimpressive. Washington has played action roles before, as well as the role of a man willing to die for a child (John Q). Fanning has played an intelligent and precocious little girl in most of her movies. I was far from blown away by their performances.
The cinematography also failed to have a positive impression on me. In the beginning, when Creasy is drunk and confused, the cinematographers used double images and broken viewpoints to create a dizzying or a dazed effect. This was very good for the first act of the movie. When it switched over to the action part, however, this technique followed unnecessarily and started to get irritating and distracting.
Overall, Man On Fire is a good movie for cheap thrills but provides neither a novel storyline nor impressive performances.
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