Star Sean Penn and director Pierre Morel bring the “Taken” concept back into theaters with “The Gunman.” While there are high-minded issues ostensibly at play here—Western commercial exploitation of Africa, guilt and penance, love and abandonment—we soon realize the intent is exactly the same as “Taken”: for audiences to watch the aging star’s muscles ripple as he kicks butt and takes on action in an array of picturesque locales.
The movie begins in 2006, where mercenary Jim Terrier (Sean Penn, “Gangster Squad”), an ex-special forces man, is working for a mining company in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country ravaged by civil war. Jim takes part in an assassination with his band of former military types, which includes Felix (Javier Bardem, “Skyfall”), who pines after Jim’s girlfriend Annie (Jasmine Trinca, “Honey”).
After the assassination, Jim is forced to leave the country and Annie behind. Eight years later, Jim has returned to the DRC, drilling wells to provide clean water for local villages. His peaceful penance is disrupted when some greedy locals try to kill him and get a piece of the bounty that’s apparently been placed on his head, forcing him to go on the run.
This setup is actually quite compelling, seemingly an exposé on the abhorrent injustices done to people in the name of money for the western world. At first, “The Gunman” deals heavily with real-world news reports to draw out the human cost of the ongoing rape of Africa’s natural resources. That, of course, is before Jim starts reconnecting with his former crew to find out who wants him dead, and from there, the film devolves into nothing more than fights and gunfire.
This is the biggest problem with “The Gunman.” While there’s some exciting action on display, notably a particularly satisfying scene in which Jim outwits some would-be assailants at his temporary Barcelona apartment, the analogue is unworthy of commiseration. Early on, we discover Jim suffered from amnesia because of an increase of plaque build up in his brain. And, of course, he suffers these moments at the most inconvenient times—often, while he’s being attacked by numerous gunmen.
In other action flicks, like “The Bourne Identity” and its sequels, the main character’s amnesia made audiences want to absolve him of his past sins and support his desire to be left alone. While audiences could support Jim’s desire to do penitent charity work in “The Gunman,” he is still a bad man. He spends the majority of the movie motivated not by his desire to do good, but by his desire to escape criminal prosecution and save his girlfriend—who is the stereotypical damsel-in-distress who does nothing but act alternately stupid, hurt, loving and scared. The deadly violence throughout the film is the result of bad choices made by bad people on both sides, and without someone you really want to root for, that’s just not all that fun to watch.
By the end of the film, audiences find themselves pining for the solidity in Liam Neeson’s special set of skills or the sympathy engendered by Jason Bourne’s innocence. While it may not live up to “Taken” or “The Bourne Identity,” Pioneers looking for a little action can catch “The Gunman” in theaters now.
