‘Beckett’ is simple yet complicated, mediocre yet worth seeing
Netflix
There is a point in “Beckett” where you really expect there to be a three-armed man.
Because the influence of “The Fugitive” is so heavy that it’s hard not to imagine “Beckett” writer Kevin A. Rice watching the 1993 classic and writing his own screenplay simultaneously. The death of a significant other! A manhunt for a good person! A bus and a train and a jump from a tall position, and even a chase while people are marching!
But it’s in Greece instead of Chicago, so it’s all OK.
Actually, it almost is OK. In case the headline wasn’t contradictory enough, discussing “Beckett” is an exercise in flip-flopping. It’s painfully derivative and also makes unexpected choices. Its plot is usually a turnoff, but the filmmaking usually keeps you invested. The casting is wrong, but the plight is right.
Over the imaginary faultline between fresh and rotten, recommended or not, “Beckett” has one foot on each side.
John David Washington (“BlacKkKlansman,” “Tenet”) stars as the titular American tourist, vacationing with his girlfriend (Alicia Vikander) in Greece and both swooning in each other’s eyes and aware of the escalating political protests in the plaza outside their hotel. When a change in plans leads to tragedy, Beckett has no idea why Greek people in a remote area are trying to kill him, only that he needs to run fast now and ask questions later.
Washington, son of Denzel and a very welcome new leading man, unfortunately was a questionable choice to deliver the constant stress underneath Beckett’s perpetual dash from danger. In Washington’s performance, which also could be the fault of director Ferdinando Cito Filomarino, Beckett seems neither in shock nor barely containing his panic, so the inevitable explosion of emotion once he has a moment to settle lands as awkwardly as a guy jumping 20 feet off a Grecian cliffside. (Hypothetically, or not.) Similarly, the filmmaker largely stays at a distance throughout the chase, depriving “Beckett” of a claustrophobia that would further make its pursuit feel like the walls closing in. Even against beautiful scenery, the shots here could better match the narrative.
Meanwhile, “Beckett” flips from having not enough possibilities -- we don’t know what’s going on and neither does Beckett, but he doesn’t really know anything incriminating and to an extent it doesn’t matter what nefarious plan is afoot; it’s clear who is an enemy -- to growing overly complex, as if the more elaborate the international conspiracy, the more gripping the narrative. Not the case; the streamlined, video-game approach is preferable to overstuffed and jumbled.
So why does this add up to only a near-miss? Where many Netflix titles, particularly in the action category, have a painfully generic feel to them, “Beckett” often rises above its man-on-the-run cliches in the staging of its action. Even when you don’t care as much about certain details as you want to, Filomarino draws out suspense from the experiential nature of our place alongside Beckett’s evasion, not a first-person POV but not far from it either. The feeling of sensing how many people are out to get you, the possibility of going the wrong way on a subway platform or a busy street -- “Beckett” is a travel nightmare combined with a choose-your-own-adventure cry for help, with complicated politics and beautiful settings on the side. Like I said: a mixed bag.
C+
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