I went expecting a basic action film. I did not get it.
What we got was a man's movie - and in this reviewer's opinion one of the best in recent memory.
This it is not yet another film about revenge - it is a film about vengeance, and that's another animal entirely. If the true essence of great story-telling and myth is that it takes us on a journey that is on the surface almost simplistic, but leaves the audience more by the end; then Faster succeeds and succeeds way beyond expectations.
In side-stepping the current vogue for mindless action it does hark back to the 70s - and the look and feel are very true to those roots. Finally, we might be leaving aside the lowbrow sarcastic sadism that has ruled action films for a decade now and getting to action film that engages rather than kills to entertain.
Director George Tillman keeps the speech sparse and the direction too. While the film overhypes the testosterone levels through the hardware and the subplots there is an overall spareness to this that lifts the film. Finally, it doesn't establish that there may be a world beyond vengeance too soon. In the dialog between a truly excellent Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Johnson the film goes from one level to another entirely. For this reviewer, the Gaytons have written in that exchange one of the most iconic scenes on film in recent memory. And if this sounds like raving, then it is because it deserves it: brilliant writing and stone-hard action combine to give the audience an experience to remember.
This is a film that needed a star to really work, and in Dwayne Johnson it has found one. He creates a character that is the closest I've seen to the uncompromising spirit of Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven and Dirty Harry in quite a while. Here, there is genuine steel in the eye. This is tough without the token quips and ironic smiles. This is tough, mean tough, gutsy, down to business, get the job done, film-making for men, tough.
Without a doubt a man's film - and one of the best in recent memory - and while Johnson's clowning may have been a strength in some previous films the uncompromising hardness he shows here has the potential to make him a real A-lister.
Go be surprised as we were.
