Ronin
Ronin sports one of the best car chases in recent memory. The chase (the film's third) has cars speed in and out of tunnels, in wrong directions on major highways, and through narrow, scenic pedestrian-littered streets. It conjures up memories of _The French Connection_, _To Live and Die in L.A._ and _Speed_ all at once, and further transcends them due to its distinctively Euro look. The ride is thrilling. The accidents are devastating. And yet, there's something so, so, plastic and nihilistic about the whole setup.
I mention this because _Ronin_ wants to be the first _Pulp Fiction_ clone hitting the foreign espionage circuit. Like _Fiction_, it sports an excellent diverse cast, each character with mixed motives. Robert DeNiro is the American, Jean Reno (_The Professional_, _Godzilla_) is the Frenchman, Stellan Skarsgard (_Breaking the Waves_, _Good Will Hunting_) is the German, and Natasha McElphone (_Truman Show_) is the mysterious Irish ringleader. The cast plays off each other with the standard personas each has been associated with.
The film even has a _Fiction_-esque McGuffin--a mysterious silver briefcase. "What's in the case?" asks DeNiro, repeatedly. Perhaps the mathematical "process" described in _The Spanish Prisoner_.
But, also like _PF_, there is such a casual disregard for human life that it is ultimately off-putting. What made _Pulp Fiction_ work and _Ronin_ less satisfactory is that _Pulp Fiction_ worked on a much smaller scale, with every death in that film being economic and significant in its storyline/shock value. _Ronin_ spends too much of its time shooting, crashing, and killing that it gives us no reason to care for its central characters. Or charicatures.
Back to that car chase. The camera captures the car running down a few pedestrians. Cut to: interior look of car, McElphone is unfazed. No dialogue. No fear of getting caught. Cut to: car no. 2, with Jean Reno in the driver's seat. Six cars crash right behind him, yet he keeps going, expressionless. The audience's adrenaline is pumping, but both characters and their passengers, are sedate. What gives?
This goes on for nearly ten minutes. The city is destroyed. Innocent bystanders die. Fifty cars get demolished. Yet very few police cars respond. (Were they on strike?) And the oncoming traffic seems incomprehensibly calm over the ensuing havoc. ( Did the traffic reports prepare them?)
I suppose we, as imbecillic movie patrons can watch that and think, "Wow, that's so cool." James Bond doesn't flinch, why should they? My take: for a film that is meant to be taken with a grain of salt, it has a devastating ancillary tone. It takes everything way too seriously, from its travellogue/historical settings, to its every-day-is-a-rainy-day cinematography, to the let's throw in every hard-to-understand accent we can find in its dialogue, to its wink-wink references of the CIA, KGB and (here's the clincher) IRA.
The final scene ruined it for me. Without spoiling the film, there is a scene terribly reminiscent of _Snake Eyes_, except, at least in _that_ film, the police acted somewhat responsibly, the crowds became involved with the crime, and, ultimately, justice was served. Here, a devastating threat is made, said threat is actually followed through, and... nothing comes of it. We see the victims, but the bad guy, at least that one particular bad guy whose face is concealed, gets away. Why waste our time? There's enough illogical madmen getting away with horrific crimes displayed on our nightly news.
So I could not care for the characters. Consequently, the story bored me. Hence, I cannot recommend this film. And yet... there _is_ that wonderful car chase. I'm torn.
Video, anyone?
Nick Scale (1 to 10): 5
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