At one point in The Gunman, the new Sean Penn geopolitical thriller, our star goes surfing. It's supposed to show he has a reckless side, since he's surfing in unsafe territory, but it seems to have a larger, much more obvious purpose: To show us that Penn, at 54, is ripped. Very, very ripped.
It's no accident that the trailer for The Gunman notes prominently that it comes from the director of Taken (Pierre Morel), the 2008 thriller that transformed Liam Neeson into a no-nonsense, border-hopping, middle-aged action star. Despite the high-minded issues ostensibly at play here - Western commercial exploitation of Africa, guilt and penance, love and abandonment - we soon realize the goal is pretty much the same as in Taken: to have us watch Penn's muscles ripple as he kicks butt in a variety of picturesque locales.
We begin in 2006 in the Congo, where mercenary Jim Terrier (Penn), an ex-special forces man working ostensibly in security, is up to something dodgy with his band of European former military types, who include Felix (Javier Bardem, extra smarmy here) and Cox (the great stage actor Mark Rylance). One morning Jim says goodbye to girlfriend Annie (Italian actress Jasmine Trinca). She thinks he'll be picking her up later at the health clinic where she works. He says he hopes he won't be working late. We know from Penn's face that it might be a long while indeed before he returns.
That same night, as it happens, Jim's task is to assassinate the country's mining minister on behalf of his shadowy foreign bosses. His mission accomplished, Jim needs to leave, and fast. We don't see him again for eight years, with action shifting to various spots in Europe and Africa.
Then it's back to Barcelona, where Annie is in great peril. The bloody finale takes place - Where else? - in the city's famed bullfighting ring, with Jim's desperate fight for survival competing with that of the poor bull.
Will Jim Terrier survive, unlike the bull (though actually, bullfighting is now banned in Barcelona)? And will Penn's new action-hero persona survive and flourish? Not clear. Penn - who co-wrote and produced here - doesn't wear the aging action hero mantle as comfortably as Neeson. And with his famous piercing intensity, we're really looking for more character and more story from him, and less shoot-em-up.
OK, we've seen the biceps and the abs. Very nice. Now, back to the brain.
By JOCELYN NOVECK, The Associated Press
THE GUNMAN (C)
Directed by Pierre Morel. R (strong violence, language and some sexuality). 115 mins. In wide release.
