In cinema today, plot lines are recycled like old soda cans- especially in action thrillers. The Daniel Espinosa directed Safe House, is no different. Cue a CIA operative gone rogue, an idealistic young agent disappointed to find out his country’s hands aren’t as clean as he thought, and a trusted superior-turned-bad guy on the inside. Yawn. Luckily for Safe House, it has Denzel Washington. Washington, who just turned 57 but looks as if he is going on 30, adds entertainment to this been- there, done-that story. You get exactly what you pay for- to see Denzel Washington smirk and waltz around with his badass, confident stride and chew up the scenery.
Tobin Frost (Washington), a dangerous former CIA agent who has been off the grid for years suddenly turns up in Cape Town, South Africa. After your typical deal-gone wrong Frost ends up in the American Consulate, where upon announcing his name gets taken to a nearby safe house for debriefing (read: torturing). Enter Matt Weston, played by Ryan Reynolds, a “housekeeper” charged with babysitting said CIA safe house who has dreams of becoming a spy. Reynolds, in a departure from his usual awkward, funny man character does a surprisingly good job in his first action role.
After a bad guy bust up that leaves Frost in Weston’s charge, we begin the meat of the movie: Weston, in a frenzied state of panic, trying to keep up with calm, cool Frost. As Weston desperately tries to maintain watch over sneaky Frost, Frost uses the opportunity to be intentionally manipulative and gets inside Weston’s head making him question everything he thinks he knows about the CIA and his future. At one point, drawing chuckles from the audience, Frost says to Weston in his breezy manner, “This is fun, you and me figuring shit out, like the Hardy Boys.”
Unfortunately for the audience, they will have to wait through almost the entire 117-minute movie to be let in on what it is that caused Frost to evaporate from the CIA and go rogue. Because this is a formulaic movie, you can instinctively assume Tobin is ultimately “good” and that the CIA has done something evil, but why wait the entire movie to let us in on what had happened to him?
Safe House is a violent little talk, lots of action chase movie that is generally made better by good acting on the part of Washington and Reynolds. Sam Shepard and Vera Farmiga also put up wonderful performances as CIA bigwigs trying to track down Frost. Swedish director Daniel Espinosa does a commendable job with the action in his film debut for American audiences. The brutal hand-to- hand combat scenes are gritty and intense and the back-to-back car chases are thrilling and terrifying at the same time. The plot line is straightforward and lacks complexity, but in a nonstop action romp like Safe House, the dialogue is really just there to further the action, not the other way around.
Here is the fundamental problem in the story: the audience is supposed to believe that newbie Reynolds can outfox action god Denzel Washington. Washington’s visceral bad-guy acting chops are pure and unadulterated. Lets chalk this up to art imitating life: Weston seems to be in awe of Frost, who has clearly been around the block more than a few times, just as Reynolds should worship at the altar that is Denzel Washington. The idea that Ryan Reynolds could out-badass the original badass is simply laughable.
Safe House, is rated R (violence and some profanity) and is in theaters now.
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