Wanted, but not by me

At the beginning of the month I vowed not to see Wanted along with several other movies I knew would put me into a depression that no one needs in July. As soon as those words were posted in cyberspace, I began hearing positive things about Wanted, particularly from Public Radio’s David Edelstein (listen to his review here). So I broke down and went to see what the, albeit minor, buzz was about.

We all know them, perhaps they are our coworkers, or even our relatives. We all know the individuals who do their jobs so poorly that whenever they show even a glimmer of competence, they are showered with praise. These people have learned a very important life lesson and have taken it to heart: lower the expectations and you will be praised for mediocrity.

Wanted seems to follow the same maxim. What is essentially a heartless mash up of The Matrix, Fight Club, Office Space, and a little more Matrix, is peppered with a few glimmers fun, ingenuity, and panache. The rest of the movie is so dreadful that these moments stand out and undoubtedly lead to the positive feelings of movie goers.

Let’s examine the dreadful parts of the movie. James McAvoy puts a great deal of effort into keeping down his Celtic accent and is successful maybe seventy-six percent of the time. Angelina Jolie is so spindly skinny that it becomes distracting (if she keeps on this emaciating path the only role she will be able to land will be that of one of those haunted trees that live mythic forests) and the flatness of her delivery is supposed to be cool but it is just flat. Much of the dialogue is babble compiled from other films (some of the writing seems to be cribbed from movies that weren’t even that good) and it is all delivered without the slightest conviction by any of the actors. Morgan Freeman doesn’t seem to think that his role as an Obi-Wan like master assassin requires anything different than his roles as Batman’s weapons maker, Tim Robbins cell mate, or a comet-fighting president.

But just as these elements drive Wanted to the point of unwatchability, there comes a moment of mild creativity, usually in the form of an action sequence or sight gag, and the audience breathes a sigh of relief. These moments stand in such stark contrast to the majority of the film that they begin to define it. Like that one year that your dead beat cousin remembered to call grandma on her birthday, it is these moments that live on in the memory of the viewer.

A similar movie that conjures up more positive memories is Shoot ‘em Up (check out my thoughts here) which is available on DVD.