'Nobody' is impressive, underwhelming and problematic
HANDOUT
If anyone had the foresight to place a bet in the mid-’90s on Bob Odenkirk and RZA one day co-starring in an action movie, that very, very unlikely wager paid out massively thanks to “Nobody,” casting the former (a Chicago-area-native funnyman known for “Mr. Show,” “Nebraska,” “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul”) as a mild-mannered-dude/fearless killer and the latter (Wu-Tang member) as his estranged brother. (Correction: It wasn’t “anyone” who placed the bet. It was surely Christopher Lloyd, who plays Odenkirk’s character’s dad and clearly has an unfair, time travel-based advantage.) But the novelty ends there; no matter how surprising and enjoyable it is to see Odenkirk as an action star, and no matter how well-choreographed some of the action sequences are, the movie is a driverless vehicle sliding off the road.
Without giving away too much — because there’s not much to give away from “John Wick” creator Derek Kolstad’s script — “Nobody” plays like a mix of “True Lies” and, yes, “John Wick,” with seemingly bland 9-to-5 family man Hutch (Odenkirk) turning into an unstoppable revenge machine after thieves break into his house, with Hutch eventually in hot pursuit of his daughter’s kitty cat bracelet. Oh: Hutch’s last name is Mansell, and the film initially questions masculine bravado (whether in the form of cars or aggression) only to serve as a fantasy for repressed, middle-aged guys. It’s fine that Hutch turns out to be much more than just the benign professional that he appears to be; the problem is that once the movie reveals his background and deadly skills, it suggests a rage and violence begging to come out of a domesticated workforce that, in the current moment, is more than a little troubling.
Again, it shouldn’t be overlooked that Odenkirk more than holds his own in the role, but once you get over the idea of Bob Odenkirk as action hero the movie just becomes a generic storm of bullets and vigilante justice and dispatched international baddies (Russian, in this case). Action films don’t have to be brilliant examinations of society or of anything. But we’re long past the Steven Seagal era, or even the height of the Liam Neeson era. This is hardly an enlightened examination of modern manhood, or something that tries to suggest Hutch’s feelings of insignificance are misplaced. If you make a movie where the whole point is “Don’t mess with the emasculated man because he is just looking for a chance to go nuts and kill everyone to feel strong,” you’re indulging something that no longer feels innocent. And, we should now recognize, never should have.
C
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