Beckett

 2021, d. Ferdinando Cito Filomarino - netflix

There's a scene in this film where the titular Beckett (John David Washington) attempts to grab a woman's moped as he flees for his life from the people trying to kill him. In a typical action movie he would successfully speed off and a high speed chase through the streets of Athens would commence. In this movie Beckett is easily beaten off by the woman and she speeds off, leaving him to find another avenue of escape from his pursuers.

This is not, in any way, a conventional action/suspense/thriller. It adopts the man-out-of-place espionage trope but never makes Beckett anything more than a man. He's not an action hero, he's not a super spy, he's not the "impossible white male", and he's not about to become any of those things. He's caught up in something bigger than himself, and he's perpetually out of his depth. He gets beaten, shot, stabbed, on top of physical injuries sustained after a car crash early in the film kills his girlfriend (Alicia Vickander...doing someone a favour). But he's not immortal, he's not invulnerable.  Washington carries the burden of every injury in his physical performance, and the exhaustion, panic and desperation is never lost on his face.

Moreover, the death of his girlfriend finds Beckett distracted from his grief and guilt for much of the film, as he fights for survival, but you can't always hide these things as the emotions flood out of him, out of control. This vulnerability is not something we ever really see in these types of movies, certainly not from the "hero" character, and it's disarming watching a grown man weep.

Add to the mix the frightening aspect of being a foreigner in an unfamiliar country with a language barrier getting in the way, and being embroiled in a kidnapping conspiracy that's intentionally obfuscated to both Beckett and the audience, it's quite easy to sympathize with just how stacked the odds are against him.  There's two possible scenarios presented for what Beckett is caught up in, and neither really matter.  What Beckett is all too keenly aware of is what he's seen, and he later learns that even what he knows is a threat that can derail the plans various people have. 

This film is not faring well with audiences and critics are being only a little more generous. I think its subversion of the expected action thriller playbook and the dismissing of the conventions of the hero archetype throw people for a loop.  In these situations we want so see bravery, boldness, fortitude, and rising to the occasion, not cowering in fear, fleeing for one's life, and next to no fighting acumen out of the lead.  But that is this film's whole purpose to subvert these expectations and kind of plunk an average man into a larger caper and still have him be an average man.  Beckett worries about involving others, enlisting their help, both because he fears they may call the police (who are not to be trusted) and also because it means putting them in danger as well.  His own actions have consequences for himself and others, and the way Washington plays it, he's very aware of this.  He's not an action hero, but he is a good person.

(minor spoilers)

Beckett, following his girlfriend's death in the car crash and a few days recovery, is about to overdose on vicoden, at which point he is attacked for the first time.  Despite wanting to die because of his grief, he doesn't want to be killed.  His adrenaline kicks in and it's fight or flight (mostly flight).  We see these moments where his adrenaline kicks in, where, still upsettingly wounded, he's able to push on, to keep running, to fight back (and the fighting is always very fraught and messy).  But the moment the adrenaline drops, his sense of guilt and grief get the better of him.

The final stages of the film, Beckett makes an ill advised jump from the third story of a parking garage onto the roof of a car.  At this stage he's been through the absolute ringer both physically and mentally and he's just trying to do something good, to have something good come out of all of this madness.  This is where you have to remember that Beckett was ready to kill himself earlier in the film, an that now if he's going to die it will at least serve a purpose.

(/end spoilers)

I'm quite enamored with this film and with Washington's performance.  The "everyman" is so rarely ever an everyman.  Look at North By Northwest, similar plot but it's Cary fucking Grant in the most charming Cary Grant mode of his career.  In that Hitchcock thriller it's not an everyman caught up in a big espionage plot, it's Cary Grant, and that's the difference.  John David Washington has a very small portfolio at this stage, and while he's definitely a compelling lead, there's no "John David Washington" persona to ascribe to him or his performances, he's still able to disappear into the role he's playing.  Beckett is not the same as "Protagonist" in Tenet and he's not the same as Ron Stallworth in BlacKkKlansman.  The only thing he can't escape is being notably Denzel's kid, but he's also very much a different performer than his father....it's the biggest burden he bears, as for some he may never be seen outside of his father's shadow. For me (and for a lot of directors) he's already a compelling leading man in his own right.

Director Filamarino here captures the Grecian countryside and cityscapes beautifully, but never loses track of the fact that Beckett is our point of view character.  We see the majestic landscapes or the city rooftops from the freeway from Beckett's perspective.  In one scene Beckett is at a cliff's edge looking upon a gorgeously expansive terrain. There's no civilization in view, but Beckett's only path forward is down.  As much as he comprehends the beauty, the awe is more in how unaccommodating it is for Beckett's plight.  Same with the city, having finally made it to Athens, he still needs to navigate this unfamiliar metropolis safely to get to the safety of the US Consulate, and it's pretty, but daunting.

Does it compare to the more visceral thrills of a Marvel or Fast and Furious film? Of course not, but it's not supposed to.  It's asking us to connect with a character and a situation, to really live in the tension and danger and emotions the character is bathed in, to make one's self feel so vulnerable and helpless and just looking for a way out, for someone to fix it.  It's full of depressing reality, which isn't the escapism most people are looking for.