The Foreigner

The new Jackie Chan movie The Foreigner is a movie that is built on a platform that is quite familiar. At one point the movie even reminded me of Neeraj Pandey’s A Wednesday. Drifting away from the core and lingering on the uninteresting part of the proceedings, this Martin Campbell movie was a dull experience for me.

Ngoc Minh Quan is a Chinese man who runs a restaurant in London. In an unfortunate bomb blast that shook London City Quan lost his only remaining family member, his daughter. The man who now has no one to lose goes all out to find the people behind the blasts. The film is showing the attempts of Quan to get the details about the minds behind these terror acts from Irish minister Hennessy who had a past where he had connections with the organization behind this crime.

Firstly, seeing Brosnan and Chan in that shape hits you hard as it will make you realize that you have also become old. But it was nice to see both actors evolving and choosing characters that matched them in terms of physicality. The problem with The Foreigner is that it is too typical. From the first scene itself you know what is going to happen. What I wanted to know was how Mr. Campbell is going to package this movie to indulge us. But the movie sort of refrains from entering that combat zone and that makes it a dull watch as nothing else is happening in the content which you can call as fresh.

Jackie Chan may not be the same old flexible action guy. But he portrays the emotional baggage and determination of a dad very convincingly. Chan who used to do one take action scenes which never took help from cinematographer, editor or a stunt double has compromised here on those aspects due to old age. Pierce Brosnan plays the role of Irish minister Hennesy in a convincing way and his Irish accent makes the performance more authentic.

Martin Campbell who has made movies like Casino Royale and the Zorro films is struggling with a weak screenplay here. The screenplay fails to keep it gripping and like I said earlier, at one point it totally forgets the Chinaman. The cliches could have felt least annoying if the visual depiction of situations were appealing, but the movie barely have any captivating action sequences. The visuals and other technical aspects of the film are fine.

The foreigner is a dull thriller with very less catchy elements. It fails to utilize the new phase of Chan’s career and I hope more films in the future would be able to make the best of it.

Rating: 2/5