Man on Fire (2004)

Directed by Tony Scott. Starring Denzel Washington, Radha Mitchell, Dakota Fanning, Christopher Walken, Rachel Ticotin, Giancarlo Giannini, Marc Anthony, Mickey Rourke, Roberto Sosa, Jesús Ochoa. [R]

Hard-drinking ex-CIA covert op Washington takes a job in Mexico as bodyguard to the daughter (Fanning) of a wealthy automaker. The suicidal burnout resists becoming personally involved with the “package,” but bonds with her anyway, even though it’s only a matter of time before someone comes along to kidnap her, sending him on a violent vendetta through the ranks of an underworld kidnapping ring. Long, pandering vigilante picture boasts solid work from the reliable star, and Fanning is about as winning as a prop can be, but Brian Helgeland’s script belabors its point when the point is neither clear nor sound. Flashy, hyper-agitated visuals (restless camera movements, garish filters, jagged jump cuts, film speed changes, the whole shebang) are as schizophrenic as the film’s tonal shifts from slick sentimentality to sadistic torture and back again. Humorless, save for the accidental laughs (e.g., hearing Mitchell’s come-and-go Southern accent come back in a big, cartoonish way in a late emotional confrontation), and it’s puzzling as to why a film set south of the border would have the victim be a little white girl. (Okay, maybe not that puzzling…) Trent Reznor served as a musical consultant, and the usage of several Nine Inch Nails songs rates among the film’s few virtues. Based on a novel by Philip Nicholson, under the pen name A. J. Quinnell; the story was previously made into a 1987 thriller starring Scott Glenn.

41/100