The wrong guy is picked on in “Nobody”
First, we get a close-up of the beaten face of Bob Odenkirk’s Hutch Mansell.
Hutch, handcuffed and sitting in a darkened room, then pulls a cigarette from a pack and lights it with a Zippo.
Next from his jacket comes a can … of tuna and … a can opener … and then … an adorable little kitty that gets to work on its dinner.
We then see that a man and a woman — obviously law-enforcement types — have been sitting across from Hutch and observing this whole production.
“Who the (expletive) are you?” the woman asks. “Me?” he says. “I’m … .” “NOBODY,” announces on-screen text for the new, reasonably fun action film with that title.
“Nobody” is penned by Derek Kolstad, a co-creator of the “John Wick” franchise, who wrote the series’ first two entries, co-wrote the third and is credited by this movie’s production notes as being its “narrative architect.”
Not surprisingly, “Nobody” feels quite “Wick”ian; it’s a guilty-pleasure, empty-calorie romp seemingly designed to hold us over until the arrival of the fourth installment of the beloved overthe-top action franchise starring Keanu Reeves, set for theaters next year.
Here, instead of Reeves’ namesake ultra-skilled assassin, we get Hutch, who, after this prologue sequence, we see living a mundane and frustrating experience.
The days of the week rush by and repeat for him with unsatisfying work and home lives, the latter involving him somehow missing the Tuesday morning garbage pickup every week. That is a fact his distant wife, Becca (Connie Nielsen), announces to him — quite unnecessarily — each time. And while his teenage son, Blake (Gage Munroe), seemingly couldn’t be less impressed with him, at least he still is adored by Blake’s younger sister, Abby (Paisley Cadorath).
Hutch works for his father-in-law, Eddie (Michael Ironside, “Top Gun”), and with his brother-in-law, Charlie (Billy MacLellan). He doesn’t have much use for either of them and would like to buy the manufacturing business, but Eddie’s
holding out for a bigger offer than what Hutch is willing to give.
Then two masked robbers break into the house. Hutch has a chance to take one out with a golf club after Blake attacks them, but he opts for the least-confrontational option, letting the thieves escape with little of monetary value.
However, Blake’s disappointment in him and ribbing by a cop who comes to the scene eats at him, and he decides he needs to do something.
Even before this point, we get hints there’s more to Hutch than meets the eye.
Just know that, before “Nobody” is over, Hutch will have spilled much blood and in a variety of ways — John Wick would be proud — and will have roped his retired FBI agent father, David (Christopher Lloyd of “Back to the Future”), and adoptive brother, Harry (musician-actor RZA), into the very-bloody affair.