‘The Foreigner’ seen as uneven mix of action and politics
BASED on Stephen Leather ‘s 1992 novel The Chinaman, Martin Campbell’s first film in six years was rechristened The Foreigner possibly because of the discriminatory connotations of the original title.
The new title is somehow fitting, with Jackie Chan’s against-type performance pushed to the side in something more akin to a conspiracy thriller. Jackie’s sullen avenger might plant bombs, but the narrative is more concerned with multiple betrayals among Irish terrorists and political chicanery between them and the British political establishment.
In fact, while marketed widely as a Jackie-led vehicle, The Foreigner’s main focus is on the struggle of Pierce Brosnan’s terrorist-turned-politician to contain the fallout of a series of bomb attacks across London.
In China, The Foreigner has daily grosses half of those generated by the chart-topping, home-grown, mid-budget comedy Never Say Die. And this despite Campbell’s film being released in 3D and benefiting from premium markups. Some Chinese viewers might have gone in expecting Jackie’s usual comic antics, which grossed US$ 368 million for him this year alone in Railroad Tigers and Kung Fu Yoga.
In the film’s opening scene, Jackie’s pensioner-aged, Londonbased restaurateur Nguyen Minh Quoc is shown driving his daughter Fan ( Katie Leung, Cho Chang in the Harry Potter franchise) to a party. Just moments after waving goodbye to her, she’s dead, the victim of a bomb attack at the restaurant to which she was going. Quoc learns of how a band of terrorists from Northern Ireland orchestrated the bombing. Mired in a mix of grief and fury — a mental state Jackie conveys surprisingly well — Quoc drops everything and heads for Belfast to get more information about Fan’s killers.
His target is one Liam Hennessy ( Brosnan), a leading Northern Ireland politician who has swapped his paramilitary past for a career in mainstream politics. His secret dealings with the British authorities risk putting his career or even his life in peril. With much bigger fish to fry, Hennessy meets Quoc but rebuffs his demand to know the identities of those who killed his daughter.
But he has underestimated this seemingly meek restaurant owner: Quoc’s swift retaliation is to blow up the toilet of Hennessy’s well-guarded office with a bomb created out of groceries. And this is just the start of the Chinaborn, Vietnam-raised and US-trained mercenary’s relentless campaign to force Hennessy to deliver names.
Quoc has one more big hurrah unleashing violent revenge on the baddies. Then again, his exploits could be seen as distracting from the main story about Hennessy, who has to confront dissent from a splinter paramilitary group and betrayal among his ranks and within his family. The chaos also reveals how he has sold out his ideals for a life of corrupting power, illicit lovers and clandestine deals with the British authorities which he once fought against as a young street fighter. While Brosnan has quite a few opportunities to show his acting chops, Jackie makes do with less: The original novel contained much more about Quoc’s motivations and deeds. In any case, it’s good to see Jackie swapping his happy- go-lucky persona for two hours for some gravitas as a tragic rogue with a marked past.