THE CONTRACTOR (2022) – Review

Just a few weeks after the release of the armed forces “dramedy” DOG, Hollywood calls upon another of its “hunkiest” action stars/leading men to don the “camo” and “gear up”. Now there’s no specially trained canines to chase after in this film, but like Channing Tatum’s Briggs, this movie’s focus wants desperately to get “back in” and rejoin his “band of brothers” in the current “hot spot”. If only he was given a road trip/mission like Briggs. That’s the main reason his “title” changes. He’s not “the soldier”, but rather THE CONTRACTOR.

That “warrior” is named James (Chris Pine), who is still considered “wounded”. We first see him in his early morning routine in order to get his body back into fighting shape after taking a bullet to his right knee in his last tour of duty. But the jogging and the weightlifting “reps’ at his cabin “sanctuary” deep in the woods aren’t enough, prompting a few “injection enhancements. Unfortunately, the “docs” at the local military camp are able to detect his “juicing” and Jim is officially discharged from Special Forces. So how will he be able to keep the home he shares with nursing student/wife Brianne (Gillian Jacobs) and their pre-teen son Jack (Sander Thomas)? As the “past due” notices pile up and debt collectors fill their answering machine, James is enticed by a visit with his old “grunt buddy” Mike (Ben Foster). Seems that Mike has been earning loads of cash by offering his “special skills” as a military contractor, who “slips in under the radar”. He puts James in contact with the director of the contracting company, another vet named Rusty (Keifer Sutherland), who offers a nice “gig”. Despite Brianne’s pleading, James gets his gear in working order and joins Mike in an undercover assignment in Berlin. They’ve got to ‘scoop up” a radical scientist that’s creating biological weapons. And though the plan is simple, several things go “sideways’ as James is separated from the team and becomes a “loose end” to be “severed”, As his wound acts up can James keep himself alive and somehow make it back to the states?

Taking a break from the twin “tentpole” franchises that are WONDER WOMAN and STAR TREK, Pine proves that he can get “down and dirty” as a “working Joe”/action hero carrying (he may be in every scene) this grim “grabbed from the headline” dramatic thriller. James is no “super-soldier” as he winces in pain pushing his battered body in the opening “getting back in shape” sequence. But that’s merely a prelude to the agony to come. First up is humiliation and frustration as his military “home” pushes him aside adding extra tension to his actual home as Pine shows us the worry closing in on James as forces “pick him clean”, making him to grasp at any lifeline, no matter how shady. And when the “payday” goes awry PIne shows us how James tries to ignore his old and new wounds while holding on to his moral code which further complicates his survival. As usual Foster is solid as the old cohort Mike who may not be completely open about their new “C.O.” and recruiters. Sutherland slathers on the “fatherly charm” and “gung ho” encouragement as he binds James with a promise of quick moola with little risk. Jacobs is a welcome addition to the story, but her Brianne is later regulated to the cliched “spouse on the phone” when the story shifts into “chase and elude mode”. Though introduced close to the big finale, Eddie Marsan is a welcome supporting player as the mysterious Virgil who comes to the aid of the battered James.

The script from J.P. Davis switches gears from domestic drama to globetrotting thriller, a detour carefully executed by director Tarik Saleh, who knows when to concentrate on character and when to “amp up” the tension and plunge us, alongside James, into the “danger zone”. He makes excellent use of the overseas locales as James and Mike stalk their “target”, then slowly lets us in on the “truth”. The “hand-to-hand” throwdowns are staged and shot effectively, while the “fire fights’ are filled with moments of chaos and calamity. Unfortunately, the real villains and motivations fall “into place” too cleanly and the last act denouncements and showdowns seem too rushed, letting the story seem too familiar to any number of military action “potboilers”. The first-rate cast can’t quite elevate the “plot beats” making THE CONTRACTOR an intermittingly engaging but quickly forgettable modern-day “shoot em up”.

2 Out of 4

THE CONTRACTOR opens in select theatres and is available as a video-on-demand beginning on Friday, April 1, 2022