RONIN (United Artists) Starring: Robert DeNiro, Jean Reno, Stellan Skarsgaard, Natascha McElhone, Jonathan Pryce, Sean Bean. Screenplay: J. D. Zeik and Richard Weisz. Producers: Paul Kelmenson and Frank Mancuso Jr. Director: John Frankenheimer. MPAA Rating: R (violence, profanity) Running Time: 121 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Since time immemorial -- Memorial Day 1996, to be precise -- one question has plagued movie-goers the world over: what might MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE have looked like if someone had shown the faintest interest in telling a coherent story? As answer, I give you RONIN, an international espionage thriller fueled by as much brain power as adrenaline. The comparison to MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE is almost too easy, especially given the presence of Jean Reno in both casts, but it's a telling comparison nonetheless. RONIN shows how much more effective a film can be when set pieces are connected by ideas.
The film opens in Paris, where a man known only as Sam (Robert DeNiro) joins a multi-national band of mercenaries employed by Irish nationalist Deirdre (Natascha McElhone). Vincent (Jean Reno) is the team's French location expert; Gregor (Stellan Skarsgaard) oversees electronic surveillance; Spence (Sean Bean) is the weapons specialist; Larry (Skipp Sudduth) serves as their driver. Their mission is obtaining a certain silver case by any means necessary, the contents unknown to the operatives but obviously much in demand. As the operation begins, alliances quickly shift with the prevailing winds, no lofty ideal more important than the exigencies of the moment.
That notion both drives the film and provides its title. As explained in too-literal (especially given a later, more subtle explanation) on-screen titles, "ronin" is a term for masterless samurai in feudal Japan, forced to survive as bandits or swords-for-hire without the honor of serving a worthy lord. Sam, Vincent and company, all of whom once served as government agents or soldiers, are now down-sized Cold Warriors without a patriotic purpose. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE flirted with the same concept, but it was to turn characters into vengeance-driven super-villains. They function in RONIN as free agents, loyal only to themselves, suspicious and treacherous because everyone around them could be more suspicious or more treacherous. The characters are sketched in only the most basic terms, in keeping with their private natures, yet they are given presence by actors like DeNiro and Reno bringing mournful weight to their performances. Though few words are spoken in the script by J. D. Zeik and Richard Weisz (a.k.a. David Mamet), the very lack of human interaction between the characters speaks volumes.
For a fairly introspective film, RONIN is also a fairly exciting one. Director John Frankenheimer goes to the car chase well perhaps once too often, but those he uses are tense and well-constructed. The action level is as high in RONIN as it has been in any summer blockbuster of the last few years, and it's _better_ action, more white-knuckle gripping than whoop-it-up flashy. For some viewers, that may be reason enough to spend two hours at the movies, but it's all the more impressive because the action serves the story. Every subsequent violent encounter raises the stakes in this chaotic world, while it's always clear that the combatants neither know nor care what they're fighting for.
RONIN certainly has its share of jagged edges, notably the aforementioned opening titles and a distracting romantic sub-plot between DeNiro and McElhone. Some may find the characters too remote and under-developed, and consequently find it difficult to invest emotionally in the story. I found the chilly isolation of the characters exactly what Ineeded to become emotionally invested; the emptiness of their lives and actions _is_ the hook. This isn't earth-shaking profundity we're talking about, merely the building blocks of effective drama -- the visceral coupled with the intellectual, actions with consequences. Consequences were never really an issue in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, which makes it that much easier to appreciate what RONIN has to offer. It's no longer a James Bond landscape of world domination. For once, evil in an espionage thriller isn't what people do, but why they do it.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 masterless samurai: 8.
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