The Contractor
AMAZONThere is a lot to take away regarding The Contractor. Intriguing and strong qualities – such as the important and thematically brooding stance on the US Military and its treatment of soldiers as well as touching on realities of its influence across the globe and the leading role from Chris Pine that shines – but when the dust settles and the end credits roll, The Contractor is a feature that underwhelms in its production, vision and, ultimately, final product – feeling more so a Bourne Identity clone than something worthy of its own time.
Granted, a reteaming of Pine and Foster after Hell or High Water feels like a must for cinema fans, and while they do have a sense of chemistry, it does very little to immerse the audience and spectator nor find any form of an emotional backbone throughout the feature itself. The two are opposing faces of the same coin, with one financially secure and the other now dependent on a second chance. This impasse is never really explored, albeit a catalyst to move the plot forward. Nevertheless, the audience is meant to believe this chemistry and emotional backbone, which in turn is intended to reinforce certain tense moments in the feature’s second and third act. But like so much of The Contractor, it loses its way with not understanding what it has at its fingertips, with said emotional core purely surface and thin as paper.
That is left to Pine and his on-screen wife Gillian Jacobs, who do a fine job coaxing out the emotional torment and backbone that this feature desperately so needs, and yet they can’t quite fulfill throughout the running time. Back and forths of humanised issues of debt and metal health issues in the military fill the void left of any and all other emotional pull but it is never explored near enough to grander and more haunting degree. The issue is that the above emotional anguish and desperation is the domino effect of the feature’s plot and rests on said development in Pine’s James Harper's actions and choices, but then the feature throws out a twist of sorts, not unpredictable but ideas that destabilise the central emotive motif. Now Harper just has to survive, and in doing so, the feature somewhat forgets about the core lynchpin that set this story off. With Pine and Foster’s development and depth being a little less than nothing, the audience has little immersion to ultimately pull through, in which is where the action and suspense ought to kick in.
However, that is equally as disappointing and underwhelming, with director Tarik and cinematographer Pierre Aïm accomplishing very little in the department of suspense, tension, or atmosphere. The gunfights are bland with little weight or atmosphere; every single pulling off a trigger has little consequence or impact due to the nature of how these action gunfights are blocked – failing to throw the audience into peril and distress, instead of falling severely short of the impacted chaos it needs to bring to feel a sense of gravitas. The feature does cut back and forth from Harper in the present to him as a child with an inexplicably worthless military career, veteran father that is in some way meant to envision Harper as the antithesis to his father and role model to his own family. Again, it just falls flat in its simplicity and creation, with more substance needed on the present family dynamic to instigate peril and emotional immersion.
Alas, the disappointing production quality doesn’t stop there. The score feels non-existent throughout with minimal, if at all, atmosphere crafted on screen, which in turn weakens the action sequences and emotional turmoil considerably. Equally as flat, however, is where the feature takes its plot. The Contractor takes a bold and political manifesto with its choice of the plot as aforementioned; the issue is before long, it just all turns into a conventional softcore action feature – little worry of stunt work, action sequences, editing, etc. No morally ambiguous or provoking sentiment to go with it; The Contractor sadly feels flat, and it’s disappointing because it starts off with a manner of having an impact and point, only to waste away in the conventional and predictable, losing its way and getting sidetracked by the ghost of other franchises and contemporaries.
