Ronin

Subtle Ronin is not (not only is the allusion to Japanese feudal history explained by opening titles but a character re-iterates them later in the movie) and there are too many “how.." and "why…” questions to make it even remotely convincing but as an action movie it’s at least got some class. There’s a rather old school feel to the film (from the coterie of superannuated professionals to the whiteboard used to draw laughably simplistic diagrams of the forthcoming job), which is not surprising as veteran director John Frankenheimer was nearly 70 years old when he made this film.

The plot concerns a gaggle of freelance post-Cold War undercover operatives (Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Stellan Skarsgaard, Sean Bean and Skipp Sudduth) who are hired by a no-nonsense but unsurprisingly, good-looking blonde (Natascha McElhone), to snatch a briefcase from some bad-ass dude. Not only does the blonde’s boss (Jonathan Pryce) want the case, so do the Ruskis and of course this leads to a lot of double-crossing, high-speed chases and shoot-outs.  The "ronin" theme is quite remote from anything that occurs and is more of an attempt to add gravitas to a film that sticks closely to the familiar tropes of the genre.

Written by David Mamet who, under the pseudonym Richard Weis shares the script credit  with J..D. Zeik, who originated the story, the plot twists and turns but as with so many thrillers the indulgence required to make it hold together is a little too much to ask. There are a couple of impressively-staged car chases and the cast are all quite effective, thus saving this from total oblivion but at the end of the day, nonsense is nonsense.

 

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