Venice 2024: Wolfs
SONY
What happens when two lone wolves are forced to work together? This is the starting point for Wolfs, directed by Jon Watts and presented out of competition at the 81st Venice Film Festival.
When a high-profile public figure committed to law and security (played by a great Amy Ryan) finds herself caught in a sticky situation involving a serious crime, she hires a professional fixer (George Clooney) to cover it up – the only one in town who can provide this kind of service. But when a second fixer (Brad Pitt) shows up, the situation becomes far more complicated when the two professionals are forced to work together. Soon, what was supposed to be a simple job ends up spiraling out of control in ways they could have never expected.
An action comedy that does exactly what it says on the tin, Wolfs delivers precisely the kind of light entertainment one might expect from it, nothing more and nothing less. It quite cleverly combines a range of classic tropes of the genre – including all-in-one-night, complex criminal plots and a snowy New York setting – to offer audiences an amusing experience while attempting to play with their expectations, although it never quite succeeds in winning the battle against predictability.
The film’s greatest strength is undoubtedly in its cast, and it is doubtful that this would work at all with two different leads. George Clooney and Brad Pitt’s seemingly effortless on-screen charm, charisma and chemistry work wonders in keeping this as fun and engaging as possible, and the film relies on this heavily at every turn. Austin Abrams is also a great addition to the duo, confidently playing the fast-talking “Kid” who is not quite as dead as initially thought, matching his co-stars beat for beat and adding a certain degree of freshness to their dynamic.
Despite a few thrilling and tightly paced scenes in which director Jon Watts’ choices and experience truly pay off (including a highly engaging and visually pleasing Chinatown chase, and an appealing wedding dance scene), this mostly feels like a “paint by the numbers” kind of exercise, never truly straying off the beaten path to test the boundaries of the genre but rather keeping strictly to its comfort zone to play it safe. It is clear that the intent here is for audiences to have fun, and that objective is achieved thanks to the charming cast (who sure look as though they too had plenty of fun working on this) and witty banter, even if the narrative element is somewhat lacking and the plot’s predictability is very high indeed.