The Foreigner

With all the films out there that are based on true stories, it's refreshing to see films based on fiction as well. One thing about them being based on fiction is that the writer has more control over the story as opposed to factual based films. "The Mountain Between Us" was based on fiction as is this next film in the offing, "The Foreigner".

 

This is the story of humble businessman Quan (Jackie Chan), whose long-buried past erupts in a revenge-fueled vendetta when the only person left for him to love--his teenage daughter--is taken from him in a senseless act of politically-motivated terrorism. In his relentless search for the identity of the terrorists, Quan is forced into a cat-and-mouse conflict with a British government official, Liam Hennessy (Pierce Brosnan), whose own past may hold clues to the identities of the elusive killers. As Quan prods more and more into his search, the more complex and elusive answers are to come when certain situations are pressed.

 

Others to round out the cast are Ray Fearson as Commander Richard Bromley, Orla Brady as Mary Hennessy, Liam's wife, Rory Fleck-Byrne as Sean Morrison, Liam's nephew, Michael McElhatton as Jim Kavanaugh, Simon Kunz as Matthew Rice, Niall McNamee as Patrick O'Reilly, Lia Williams as Katherine Davies, Dermot Crowley as Hugh McGrath, Tao Liu as Lam and Katie Leung as Fan, Quan's daughter.

 

This was directed by the king of dramatically charged thrillers, Martin Campbell ("Criminal Law" '88, "Defenseless" '91, "No Escape" '94, "GoldenEye" '95, "The Mask of Zorro" '98, "Vertical Limit" 2000, "Beyond Borders" '03, "The Legend of Zorro" '05, "Casino Royale" '06, "Edge of Darkness" '10, "Green Lantern" '11, "Warriors" (TV movie) '14) plus others and TV. By his very resume, he knows how to extract the correct amount of emotion from his actors to make a drama or thriller that much more intense. "Casino Royale" has got to be one of his best. This was cleverly written by David Marconi ("The Harvest" '92, "Enemy of the State" '98, "Live Free or Die Hard"- (story) '07, "Collision" '13, "The Dark Side of the Moon" '15, "The Contract"- (story) '16) based on the novel, "The Chinaman" by Stephen Leather. Although this story had a plethora of different characters, Chan's and Brosnan's characters were the mainstay of this script. The cat-and-mouse game was the trademark of the story. There have been other films with a cat-and-mouse format to it, but this was one where Liam (Brosnan) was coerced into this deeply distraught man's world in which he lost his daughter senselessly, so this makes it a bit different from the normal cat-and-mouse type film. Other than a couple of slow places in script, this storyline really kept its audience on the edge of their seats. Given that both Chan and Brosnan aren't polished actors, they gave incredibly polished and riveting performances.

 

As political thrillers go, this is one of the most effective ones I've seen in a while mostly because of the chemistry between its two main characters. And the fact that this is derived from a fictional story makes this that much more entertaining. Grab the popcorn and enjoy!

 

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                               Rated: R                                 113mins.