‘The Contractor’ Review: Chris Pine Gets Hoodwinked Into Playing for the Bad Guys
28.03.2022 - 10:07
/ variety.com
Dennis Harvey Film CriticThe “Bourne” movies revivified the espionage genre with their nimble, scrappy, down-and-dirty action. But they weren’t as widely imitated as one might have expected, which leaves “The Contractor” feeling like a relatively fresh chip off a not-so-old block. Chris Pine stars as a forcibly decommissioned U.S.
Army careerist whom financial straits push him into a sketchy private militaristic security job. Needless to say, that goes south in a hurry.Swede Tarik Saleh’s first American feature is more impersonally commercial than prior projects (including 2017 Sundance jury prize winner “The Nile Hilton Incident”), and more efficient than memorable as a medium-scaled adventure exercise. Still, being a solid cut above average is good enough, given so much formulaic mediocrity among thrillers cluttering the streaming market. Already released in several territories during March, the film is scheduled for launch to U.S.
theaters, digital and on demand platforms April 1. Things start out unpromisingly in a rote mode of I-love-my-flag-and-family sentiments underlining that Special Forces Sgt. James Harper (Pine) is a straight-up Good Guy.
He’s just out of rehab for a serious injury incurred during the last of four combat rotations in five years, all of which has kept him overmuch from the wife (Gillian Jacobs) and son (Sander Thomas) he adores. But called into Fort Bragg by the brass, he’s brusquely informed that due to a “filthy” drug test result — he’d been medicating for his painful knee — he is being discharged, effective immediately. It’s an “honorable,” yet his pension, healthcare and other benefits are abruptly gone along with the paycheck.Creditors were already closing in, so this is not just a
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