Man on Fire ★★★½
CREATING a genuinely engaging on-screen relationship between an un-related adult and a young child is never easy.
It’s even harder when the relationship is between a middle-aged man and a young girl; and rarer still in an action film.
One of the best examples from an action/thriller is that between the nihilistic hitman played by Jean Reno and the 12-year-old orphan (Natalie Portman) in Luc Besson’s Leon from 1994.
There’s also a lot to like in the chemistry created by Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning in Tony Scott’s Man on Fire from 2004.
This is a tough, brutal film set in Mexico City against the true-life backdrop of the international business community being targeted by kidnappers on a daily basis.
Washington plays Creasey, a former CIA operative visiting another former agency man, played with his usual relish by Christopher Walken, who has made a new life for himself.
Creasey is possessed by demons; in deep remorse over the violent acts he has committed, he has turned to alcohol and solitude. Walken’s character convinces him to take a short, financially lucrative job as a live-in bodyguard for the family of a business client.
The Mexican businessman and his American wife have a young school-age daughter. Fanning, in her first dramatic role when only aged 10, is perfect as the charmingly polite and intelligent youngster who tries to befriend the bodyguard she describes as a big, grumpy, sad bear.
After initially rejecting her attempts to engage him, Creasey slowly warms to the girl and a nice, touching relationship develops. Naturally things take a severe turn for the worse when the kidnappers strike.
The second half of the film descends into familiar, revenge story-telling, albeit with Washington in grim, top form. But the depth of the two characters’ relationship established in the first half enables an emotional investment in their fate to be carried through to the conclusion.
In doing so, the climax of this very violent thriller touches the audience in ways you might usually expect from a gentler, different type of film.
All this doesn’t mean the film isn’t without faults. Tony Scott has a directorial style that features many trademark visual flourishes that can be very distracting…and Man on Fire is full of them.
Many sequences also suffer through jarring and/or overbearing music choices that don’t seem at all appropriate to the tone and circumstances. The action sequences are fast and tough but overall the film needed tighter direction and editing with less of the visual overload.
Apart from Walken, Radha Mitchell, Mickey Rourke and Italian veteran Giancarlo Giannini also have small, interesting roles in the film.
The younger brother of Ridley, Tony Scott started his career with solid, entertaining hits like True Romance, Crimson Tide (with Washington), Top Gun and Enemy of the State. The high quality tailed off later in his career but his output was always entertaining with sequences of thrilling action.
Apart from Crimson Tide, Washington also teamed with Scott for Deja Vu, The Taking of Pelham 1, 2 3 remake and Unstoppable.
Scott’s other long-time collaborator was writer Brian Helgeland who helped adapt the novel upon which Man on Fire is based. Helgeland’s best screenplays, however, are probably those for Mystic River and LA Confidential.