When I think of Beckett, I think of stodgy, over-intellectual plays; imagine my surprise at a film about a tourist on the run from police in Greece. Samuel Beckett lived edgier than I’d have guessed.
Oh, not Samuel Beckett. Just an American named “Beckett,” no relationship, no coincidence. Um, ok.
Beckett (John David Washington) and his girlfriend April (Alicia Vikander) are enjoying the heck out of Greece when they decide to push their limits of exhaustion. With April already asleep, Beckett nods off at the wheel and all at once a house veers into his lane. In a not-funny-at-all realization, April is dead. However, before Beckett blacks out, he spies a red-headed kid in the house who disappears as quickly as he appeared.
At the hospital, Beckett is told by police that the house he hit has been abandoned for years, which is odd because it obviously wasn’t even abandoned when Beckett hit the thing. When a newly single, newly depressed, and newly wounded Beckett goes back to the house to survey the catastrophe, he finds policemen shooting at him. Oh, this film has now switched gears entirely, has it? The drama is now decidedly an adventure/thriller/mystery. Why are the Greek police shooting at Beckett? Are Greek seatbelt laws that strict?
So what would you do? Here’s the situation: you don’t know where you are other than “in a country where you don’t speak the language;” you’re injured, you’re exhausted, you’re depressed
, and the local authorities want you dead. What’s your move here? And keep in mind, this isn’t Denzel Washington, this is John David Washington, and not the John David Washington from Tenet or BlacKkKlansman; this John David Washington is horribly out-of-shape, and also wearing a cast and a bullet or two. Oh, and he doesn’t know why he’s a target. What’s the big play here, because I give it up to anybody who can -under these circumstances- formulate a plan other than, “I guess this is where I die.”
Beckett the film bogs down a little with the introduction of Boyd Holbrook and a dubious storyline, but it didn’t lose me completely. I think the film also bit off a little more than it can chew when it kills off April – what kind of film do you want to make? The drama that you just introduced or the thriller that’s going to show up in about five minutes? Because you really can’t have both. Fugitives don’t have opportunities to mourn. Take it from The Fugitive. All the same, the film didn’t lose my attention, which is far more than I can say about most action movies these days. I don’t know what kind of career John David Washington is eventually going to settle into, but this won’t hurt it.
With the dexterity of a bipedal goat
A fugitive nears “that’s all she wrote”
Police misbehavior?
This Beckett needs a savior
Perhaps he should be waiting for (Gal) Gadot
Rated TV-MA, 110 Minutes
Director: Ferdinando Cito Filomarino
Writer: Kevin A. Rice
Genre: Survival tourism
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Action fans
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People who don’t like it when the best actress in the film dies before she has a chance to do any acting
