"Safe House" the Denzel Washington helmed film that debuted this weekend has action in foreign locales and good casting. Unfortunately, its story disappoints.
"Safe House" has been projected to come in #2 at the box office this weekend , just shy of the gross for "The Vow." Expected to earn $39.3 the film stars Ryan Reynolds along with Denzel Washington.
It features a host of veteran supporting actors including Brendan Gleeson, Robert Patrick, Vera Farmiga, Ruben Blades and Sam Shepard as CIA Deputy Director Harlan Whitford. The "Mission Impossible" movies as well as the Bourne trilogy of films has made us savvy consumers of this kind of drama.
Movie goers know that when the good guy turns or attempts to seek revenge on those that should suffer for their misdeeds at the CIA, he is never safe no matter where he tries to hide. Nor is he considered a good candidate for a promotion at the Agency.
Both those scenarios are fed to the audience of "Safe House" after the two spy franchises have taught us they are not believable.
The plot centers on Washington's character of Tobin Frost, a former CIA operative gone rogue who dropped off the grid for nine years. He is in possession of a chip that contains incriminating information about high-level spies from multiple countries' agencies and seeks asylum at the U.S. Consulate when his contacts are murdered.
The CIA is purportedly thrilled at Frost's reemergence and he is assigned to a nearby safe house in Cape Town, South Africa. Ryan Reynolds' character Matt Weston is in charge of the house.
While agents are in the midst of interrogating Frost, those who killed his contacts breach the safe house in order to kill him and retrieve the chip. Weston is suspected by the top brass at Langley of either incompetence or complicity and he is ordered to another location to wait for two high level CIA officials.
Frost is able to escape and Weston is told that the Agency will take over the operation while he comes in for debriefing. He had been warned by Frost that if things went bad with the assignment Weston would be blamed and his career, his freedom or both could be in jeopardy.
From there the plot and action veer into territory movie goers are familiar with, except with less depth and originality. .
SPOILER ALERT Matt Weston learns that his protector and mentor (Brendan Gleeson as David Barlow) at the Agency is one of many whose careers will crumble if the information on the chip falls into the wrong hands.
After the death of Barlow, as well as Frost, Weston is the keeper of the incriminating information. He is seen reconnecting with his lady love in Paris as the world learns of corrupt security agency officials, including the Dept. Director of Central Intelligence.
A tender scene in a Paris cafe concludes the film which fans of Bourne and MI know is nonsense. Unless the producers intend to construct at "Safe House 2", the conclusion is a fairytale that stretches credulity.
Denzel Washington does his best as the not-so-bad guy and Ryan Reynolds is more believable than one would expect in an action role.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
Comment and add to the story without registration, but keep the comments meaningful please. Links are not accepted.
