In which we learn, if you’re a C.I.A. operative who’s captured a world-class baddie, whatever you do, do not got to a safe house. In Safe House, directed by Daniel Espinosa (Snabba Cash), safe houses are the most dangerous places in the world.
Poor young Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) just wants a better gig, having paid his dues for a long, boring year at an empty safe house in Cape Town. He puts in a call to his upper-tier mentor David Barlow (Brendan Gleeson) and tells him just that. Barlow tells him to hold tight, things will happen.
Enter that world class baddie, Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington). Sporting gray-tipped hair spiking upwards and outwards, Washington has his usual amount of fun playing a character like this. On one hand, watching the aging-but-never-old movie star take so much time off (his last film was in 2010) and then return with a by-the-books actioner is aggravating. On the other hand, it remains a testament to the performer that he infuses so much soul into his any and every line of dialogue.
Reynolds, on the other hand, continues to struggle with his prophesied stardom. Following a busted 2011 (Green Lantern and The Change-Up both collapsed on his shoulders), the young actor looks lost in a state of arrested development. Here, in the lead role, he barely cracks a smile. His forced seriousness, especially in a silly romp like this, recalls a younger Ben Affleck who similarly chose to refuse the one thing that got him the lead role: his smile.
To be fair, the script, by David Guggenheim, offers moments of insight that were perhaps partly replaced with the many, loud action set pieces that populate the finished film. As soon as the safe house, and the Frost’s capture, is compromised, a C.I.A. agent named Linklater (a brutally wasted Vera Farmiga) is determined to make Weston the fall guy. And as the film continues and other options continue to fall away, this notion becomes more and more of a solution for all the other agents in the room with Linklater, including Gleeson’s Barlow. It’s an interesting take on a familiar plot turn. The lack of trust in these back-alley organizations is introduced at the very beginning, Guggenheim’s narrative only taken us further and further down the rabbit hole.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t go anywhere we haven’t been before. Espinosa brings a bit of style to the proceedings, shooting digitally and real close to his actors, capturing every look of panic from Weston and every look of cool from Frost. But the reactions are about as simple as described above, and the plot even more so. Every twist and turn is mapped out a bit too much, a bit too far in advance. Blame the casting department here, and the choice to bring on an actor who’s presence alone in a film like this promises that he/she will have the juiciest, twist-iest role in the film.
What we have here, simply put, is a relatively by-the-books action film offering some impressive visual flare, some fun action and Denzel Washington.
Safe House is in wide release beginning Friday, February 10th.