Dwayne Johnson shows off his dramatic acting chops
The hardest-working man in showbiz, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson debuts his third blockbuster action flick in nine months this weekend. The descriptively titled “Skyscraper,” which comes on the heels of “Rampage” and “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” is written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, who directed Johnson in the very funny buddy comedy “Central Intelligence.” “Skyscraper” — a sort of reverse “Die Hard,” where a family man breaks into an imposing structure to save his family — scoots by on the thinnest of premises, and an even thinner script.
While it’s a completely disposable story, “Skyscraper” is fascinating simply for Thurber’s fascination with evolving Johnson’s star persona. In “Central Intelligence,” he cast Johnson against type, liberating him from gruff meathead roles and uncovering his goofy comedic talent. In “Skyscraper,” Thurber takes Johnson to a darker, grittier place. Johnson’s Will Sawyer is tough as nails, using brute force, blunt instruments and plenty of duct tape to rescue his family from a burning building. He barely even touches a gun.
In so many of his films, Johnson is like some comic book superhero: cartoonishly strong, his biceps bulging to an unimaginable size. But in “Skyscraper,” Thurber seeks to diminish that strength. The camera looks down on him rather than up, and he’s in rumpled business casual rather than tactical spandex. It makes him more human before we watch him perform feats of strength and derring-do using simple machines, like Buster Keaton on human-growth hormone.
Thurber literally handicaps Will, who loses his leg in a bombing as an FBI rescue team leader 10 years before the events of the film. He loses the limb but gains a wife, Sarah (Neve Campbell), the surgeon who operated on him. They’re in Hong Kong with their twins at the world’s tallest skyscraper, The Pearl, where Will is putting in a bid as a security consultant for the city in the sky. Scams, theft, arson and double-crosses ensue, and soon Will is outside The Pearl, which is on fire, trying to get in to save his trapped family as a team of thieves is trying to get out.
One has to wonder if the entirety of “Skyscraper” was reverse-engineered around a single stunt, wherein Will leaps from a construction crane into a crashed-open window of The Pearl. The leap does draw gasps and cheers from the audience — both the one in the theater, and the onscreen audience of onlookers watching Will’s exploits on news screens on the street. This screenwithin-a-screen device is a little slice of meta commentary laced throughout that visualizes the literal spectacle of Johnson and his physical capabilities.
This depiction of how we see Johnson as an action star, and the twists in his evolution as a performer are what make “Skyscraper” interesting to watch. The charm is turned down, the seriousness turned up and Johnson pulls it off. It’s also a refreshing change to see him have a fully realized romantic partner for once, and Campbell gets her own set of heroics to perform.
Otherwise, the plot is strangely simplistic, the special effects murky and chaotic. The cast is stacked with an array of international actors, no doubt to appeal to a global audience.
Thurber’s storytelling is rote at best, scanty in some places, but the performers sell it with all they’ve got. “Skyscraper” is standard issue, but it makes for a compelling entry in the story of Johnson’s stardom, and his total Hollywood domination.