The Contractor
"The Contractor" is an effective enough throwback to action-thrillers of a bygone era.
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“The Contractor” (available in select theaters including Regal Village Park in Carmel, Ind., Regal Shiloh Crossing in Avon, Ind. and AMC Indianapolis 17 and on VOD beginning Friday, April 1 before being accessible shortly thereafter on Paramount+ and Showtime) is a movie we don’t get a whole lot nowadays. It’s an earnest, straightforward, no-nonsense, no-frills action-thriller aimed squarely at adults. What it does, it does fairly well – but it by no means reinvents the wheel. It feels like a film from a bygone era.
Chris Pine stars as James Harper, an Army Ranger whose body’s been beat to hell. To keep himself in the game, James has been self-medicating with pain killers and Human Growth Hormone. When James’ commanding officer discovers his doping, he gives him an honorable discharge – but he loses his pension and all other benefits in the process.
Struggling to provide for his wife Brianne (an underused Gillian Jacobs) and son Jack (Sander Thomas), James turns to his old war buddy Mike (Ben Foster) for a private contracting gig. Mike hooks James up with Rusty Jennings (Kiefer Sutherland, making a full meal out of an appetizer of a role). Rusty sends James and Mike off to Berlin to neutralize a laboratory where biological weapons are supposedly being made. Shit goes sideways. Bodies begin piling up. James is now on the run in the fight for his life hoping to one day return to his family.
This all sounds awfully familiar, no? And it is. But it’s executed fairly efficiently through the direction of Tarik Saleh (he’s directed episodes of HBO’s “Westworld” and Showtime’s “Ray Donovan”) and a screenplay by J.P. Davis (the writer, star and co-producer of 2004’s “Fighting Tommy Riley”). There isn’t a ton of action in the movie, but the action we’re given is proficient enough. This ain’t “Mission: Impossible” or “The Bourne Identity” – it’s more akin to paranoid thrillers of the 1970s such as “The Parallax View” or “Three Days of the Condor” … only nowhere near as good.
The greatest strengths “The Contractor” has to offer are Pine’s fine performance (he’s honestly kinda underrated), seeing him reteam with Foster (this is their third film together after “The Finest Hours” and “Hell or High Water” – qualitatively this hews closer to the former as opposed to the latter – but it’s clear to see these two have a real affinity for one another and work well together) and a pair of stirring scenes Pine’s James shares with pursuing merc Eric (JD Pardo of FX’s “Mayans M.C.”) and safe house handler Virgil (consummate pro character actor Eddie Marsan).
Ultimately, “The Contractor” proves to be a character study of a broken man done wrong by the country he fought to protect putting the puzzle pieces of his life back together. It’s a somewhat sobering reminder that we all need to do a better job protecting those who protect us.