Faster

It’s been a while since Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson first stepped onto the silver screen and promised to become the next big action hero. And then… he did The Tooth Fairy. Huh? So the hope here was that Faster would see him return to the muscle-bound roles that he seems so perfectly suited for. But it’s not that great an action film and his role is pretty thin. Considering how well he acquitted himself in Southland Tales, hopefully further down the line a meatier role will present itself. The man can act, and he can beat down on people, but for now we’ve got a by-the-numbers revenge thriller that substitutes intelligent blocking in its fight sequences for loud sound effects. It disguises the lack of dynamism reasonably effectively, but it’s a cheap trick for what is meant to be an action flick.

The state of the art in revenge thrillers has changed a lot in the past decade or so. Where once upon a time a film like this would be considered pretty solid, we now have the likes of Oldboy, Kill Bill and The Limey to show howgood these kinds of the stories can be when in the hands of intelligent filmmakers. But Faster is just dumb. If you haven’t picked up the major plot twists within the first half hour, you’re either asleep or not paying attention. Either would be forgivable, but if you didn’t come to party, then why did you come here at all? Frustratingly, the rote story actually has some interesting material in it. Every person Driver kills, bar one, has turned their life around. They’re no longer crooks, they work normal jobs, have families, they’ve put their past behind them. The one guy who is still creepy is really creepy, but it feels like he’s bad to make Driver seem good. After all, Driver is killing people without mercy or hesitation, he’s driven (pardon the pun) by vengeance. They killed his brother, so they have to pay. But whereas in an intelligently structured revenge thriller, these ideas would get a proper exploration, here they’re handled less artfully. Driver’s final victim has become a preacher and delivers a sermon on forgiveness as he faces the gun. The only thing saving the scene is the earnest performance of Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, something about his eyes really works even though his character is a stock-standard revenge thriller trope made flesh. The chance to paint Driver in shades of grey is wasted, he’s just a guy killing people who screwed his family rather than a relic of the past unable to move on like his reformed victims have.

Cop, well, he’s kinda interesting. A reforming (but not reformed) drug addict trying to repair his broken marriage and make it to retirement. He’s the most interesting person in the whole story, which makes it sad that he’s got little to do other than chase Driver around and receive looks of derision from his co-workers. But he is a bright spot and his interactions with his son are a bit above par for this kind of material.

The character of Killer is more off-the-wall, and this is where the film really loses it. On the one hand, Faster acts like it wants to be a stylish 70’s thriller. Certainly it’s lensed that way. But the script tends more towards a bad 80’s action flick, and Killer is the best example of this. A former software genius who has made millions, he now kills people in some perverse game of proving himself master of all (how bushwhacking someone proves you to be a man apparently needs not to be explained). He’s a ridiculous character, though aptly portrayed as infantile. More bizarre is his girlfriend who suddenly takes a dislike to his lifestyle once they get married. It’s unmotivated and clunky. That in itself wouldn’t kill the film, but it’s a poor fit to a story that, in tone at least, avoids such silliness. It’s the buck-each-way approach that jars, since a gritty, if predictable, revenge thriller would be fine. An over-the-top revenge action tale would be good too. But throw these together and you just end up with a bit of a farce. It’s a pity, because it renders what could have been a thoroughly solid b-action thriller closer to a c-grade affair.

And Faster is C-grade. The action is mediocre and the story is another wasted opportunity. But do yourself a favour and buy the soundtrack. Whoever chose the music for the film has impeccable taste, I just wish they’d also written and directed it.

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