Stars:
*** 1/2
Rating: PG-13 for intense
action, violence and language
Run
Time: 1
hour, 35 minutes
Will Smith
positively owns summer; it
wouldn’t be blockbuster season without a Smith entry on the essential Independence
Day calendar. Is he worth the hype?
Absolutely. Smith
delivers a pitch-perfect performance as John Hancock; a grungy, sodden super-hero
whose dubious rescue tactics are not looked kindly upon by the increasingly
aggravated residents of Los Angeles.
The premise
alone is worth the price of admission and the first hour is some of 2008’s most
intriguing cinema; edgy black dramedy with surprising depth.
Hancock is
faster than a speeding bullet and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound
but suffers from deep feelings of rejection stemming from an 80-year-long bout
of amnesia and the fact that he was abandoned at a Miami hospital in the
mid-1920s.
As the
tetchy Angelenos rebuff Hancock he rebuffs back, his slipshod do-gooding
resulting in felony destruction and some six-hundred subpoenas for civil suits.
Not your run of the mill super-hero!
There’s a
core of vulnerability under that hefty psychological armor and image consultant
Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman) is determined to polish Hancock to an amicable shine.
His plan includes a widespread public apology and a stint in the slammer, where
Hancock will undergo anger management classes and alcohol rehabilitation. Dropping
down on $100K Mercedes and taking out city streets with scorching landings are
off limits.
Humor is
laced with sorrow as Hancock strives to interface with the community and mold
himself into an upbeat people person, losing his emotional footing time and
time again. I laughed long and hard when Hancock rescued a beached whale by
tossing it into the chilly California waters, and, oops, onto a picturesque
sailboat. I also shed a tear at Hancock’s confessions of hurt and confusion
that no one claims ownership of the wildly conflicted man-child.
Director
Peter Berg stays solidly on tone for two-thirds of this clever summer actioner
but loses his footing with the addition of an over-pixilated super-hero
side-note that skews seriously towards ludicrous. Fortunately the climax is
affecting enough to gloss over the worst of the narrative damage.
Smith is
aces as the jaded anti-hero, every nuance packing a hefty emotional punch.
Bateman does Bateman spot-on; sweet and silly with smarts to match. Charlize
Theron gives good face to dutiful housewife Mary Embrey but struggles with the
film’s most fragile set-piece. Graphics are top-notch.
Fabulously
flawed but I just can’t shake it.