The Contractor
Too po-faced to be an enjoyable popcorn action flick, too predictable to be an effective conspiracy thriller, and too far-fetched to work as a straightlaced character drama, The Contractor doesn’t appear to know what it wants to be.
Premise: After being thrown out of the army following an injury, ex-special forces sergeant James Harper (Chris Pine) and his family are facing mounting debt, until his former colleague Mike (Ben Foster) introduces him to a group of private military contractors run by fellow veteran Rusty Jennings (Kiefer Sutherland). James is soon sent on his first mission in Berlin, but all is not what it seems.
Review:
It’s a shame that this movie is so disappointing, as it has a great cast, and I can’t help but get the feeling that they all thought they were making something that had more to say than The Contractor actually does. Unfortunately, the movie never quite seems to decide on a tone or a genre, and the end result is a tiresome mess.
The opening section is very slow paced, and gives the impression that this film is going to be a character based drama, looking at the way in which the military abandons its veterans once they’ve been chewed up, mentally and physically, by the system. But even then, the movie doesn’t really have anything new or of substance to say, and although the excellent Gillian Jacobs does the best she can with the material she’s given to work with, she’s essentially just a one-note character as James’ wife who is worried about their finances but who also doesn’t want her husband to put himself back in danger.
“…Chris Pine is by far the best thing in the film…”
After a long set up, the movie then whisks James off to Berlin for his first mission as a private military contractor almost as soon as he’s been introduced to Rusty Jennings (Kiefer Sutherland) by his old army buddy Mike (Ben Foster). In truth, Kiefer Sutherland feels completely wasted in this film, as his role is almost just a cameo and he barely has anything to do in the couple of scenes he’s in. Similarly, Ben Foster doesn’t really have anything to get his teeth into, and just plays the kind of potentially shifty character that he could play in his sleep.
The only actor who really gets anything to do is Chris Pine, and in fairness, he’s by far the best thing in this film. For the most part, he has to play James as being an emotionally buttoned down serviceman, calm and controlled on the surface no matter how he feels underneath, and he plays that role well. But he also gets moments to show what’s hidden underneath the surface, in a number of scenes later on once his emotional barriers begin to break down.
“…the action sequences are very pedestrian…”
But as I said upfront, the film is too far-fetched to work as a serious character drama, because once James is on his mission in Germany, things start to stray into typical action thriller territory. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t work on that level either. For example, the conspiracy thriller elements are so predictable that you’ll see all the twists coming a mile off without even trying, and some of the revelations are almost laughable.
At the same time, the action sequences are also very pedestrian. I had hoped The Contractor may fall into the same not-great-but-pretty-enjoyable camp as last year’s Tom Clancy's Without Remorse, but whereas that film at least had some inventive and tense action sequences, The Contractor, sadly, does not. The action sequences either feel very uninspiring, or are so dark that it’s difficult to make out what’s going on, and in at least one key action sequence, a military character’s “tactics” seem so unbelievably amateurish that it’s impossible to take it seriously.
“…there’s little to recommend…”
All in all, there’s really little to recommend watching The Contractor for. Even the disappointing The 355 had a handful of enjoyable moments and set-pieces despite its weak script, but The Contractor doesn’t even have that. I recommend you terminate this contract and watch the excellent Chris Pine/Ben Foster film, Hell or High Water, instead.
