THE STORY – Levon Cade left behind a decorated military career in the black ops to live a simple life of working construction. However, when human traffickers kidnap his boss’s daughter, his search to bring her home uncovers a world of corruption far greater than he ever could have imagined.
THE CAST – Jason Statham, Michael Peña, David Harbour, Jason Flemyng, Arianna Rivas & Noemi Gonzalez
THE TEAM – David Ayer (Director/Writer) & Sylvester Stallone (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 95 Minutes
“A Working Man,” the latest collaboration between star Jason Statham and director David Ayer, begins with an opening credits sequence from the 1980s. As the synths pulse, an almost abstract collection of images tells how the British Levon Cade (Statham) came to work as a construction lead for the family-owned and operated Garcia & Family Construction. Despite the steady work, Levon lives out of his car to save money to cover the attorney’s fees he needs to fight his well-to-do father-in-law for custody of his daughter. The Garcia family keeps him fed, though, and he keeps the construction work going even when some gangsters show up to their work site to beat on one of their workers. When the Garcias’ daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas) doesn’t return from a night out celebrating her first semester at college, her frightened parents offer Levon $50,000 to tap into his military training and find her (plus another $20,000 for expenses). He wants to leave that life behind, but he’ll pull out all the stops for this family to ensure Jenny’s safe return. But can one man take on drug dealers, biker gangs, and the Russian mafia all at once?
Statham is one of our last examples of the Old Hollywood star system – when studios carved out clearly defined personas for their biggest stars and had them play the same role until they stopped making money. Nearly 30 years into his career, Statham’s films have yet to stop making money, and he has never veered far from what works for him. Much like his action hero predecessors – Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Van Damme, Willis – Statham’s films all feel engineered around his star persona and a tried and tested screenwriting formula. They’re all pretty much identical: Statham plays a gruff man with a dark past who prefers talking with his fists to talking with his mouth, whose moral code is broken by the harming of an innocent close to him, whom he must rescue or avenge. His films rely on the surface-level pleasures of watching a good guy beat up dozens of bad guys, and these days, when so much of daily life feels both unfair and out of the control of most average working people, the kind of vigilante justice on display here feels especially satisfying to watch. Who wouldn’t want to blow human traffickers to smithereens, especially Russian ones?
Unfortunately, “A Working Man” keeps things far too serious for most of its nearly two-hour runtime. The best action star vehicles embrace the camp inherent in their over-the-top depictions of violence and tough-guy machismo, stopping the movie dead in its tracks for corny catchphrases and larger-than-life iconic images of masculinity. Few people in Hollywood know how this works better than Sylvester Stallone, who executive-produced and co-wrote this film alongside Ayer. That explains the film’s ’80s bona fides. Still, as with “The Beekeeper,” his last film with Statham, Ayer can’t quite commit to the over-the-top flourishes that make for a truly memorable cinematic experience.
Make no mistake, there are some big character moments here (every single Russian character is a giant stereotype, leading to some deliciously hammy accent work and grand gestures), but despite the paper-thin characters, the film has a solemnity hanging over it like a weight, crushing the life out of every scene that doesn’t involve fists and guns. It’s possible to make something ridiculously entertaining out of that kind of buttoned-up self-seriousness (the “John Wick” series does this masterfully, especially in its last installment). Yet, Ayer and Statham pull the film back every time it starts to approach that level of camp, which it does every time we’re introduced to a new player in the ever-expanding web of criminals Levon is trying to break into.
While Statham gives his standard brute-force performance, the supporting cast of various villains is full of colorful performances, especially from Eve Mauro, Chidi Ajufo, and Jason Flemyng. The problem is that there’s far too much going on here. The premise starts simply enough, but the cast of characters keeps growing until the film bursts at the seams. The overstuffed plot leads to a protracted final showdown that doesn’t offer nearly enough payoff for how much extra time has been added, and that big finale doesn’t do anything particularly fun or clever with its action choreography (outside of one gloriously over-the-top moment when Statham literally pulls a Mortal Kombat-style finishing move on one of the Russians). However, you don’t go to a Statham movie looking for stylish action; instead, you go for the brute force of fists meeting skulls, bullets piercing chests, and explosions going boom.
And, for better or worse, “A Working Man” is pure brute force, barrelling through its standard (if overstuffed) plot with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, pummeling you into submission with its hard-hitting (if uninspired) fight scenes. You may not be wowed by the action on display here, but you feel every single body blow and gunshot. That’s exactly what you expect from a Statham vehicle, and that’s what “A Working Man” delivers, even if it doesn’t give you any more than that.
