Not your average hero
Hancock shows Hollywood still has a bit of creativity.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
The title character of director Peter Berg's new flick Hancock has a lot of impressive powers, but perhaps the biggest feat of all is that, despite being a superhero, he's in a film that isn't ripped from the pages of a comic book and doesn't need a Roman numeral in the title to compete as a summer blockbuster.
That's right, folks, there's still originality in Hollywood, even if took more than a decade for the script of writers Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan to finally make it to the big screen. Why the wait? I suppose it's not hard to imagine studio suits sweating the dilemma: superheroes are for kids, they'd say, and Hancock is, well, not exactly a kids movie. A lot of violence (but little blood) and some coarse language earn it a PG-13 rating. But there's also a good story that is, in turns, hilarious, touching and action packed.
THE PLOT:
From the outset there's no way to mistake that the title hero is no Boy Scout. Awaking from a drunken stupor, he puts a stop to a high speed chase — but causes some serious damage in the process. That's apparently par for the course.
Things start to change, though, when the irreverent, hard-living Hancock, who knows nothing of his life before being invincible, stops a train from smashing into down-on-his-luck public relations pitchman Ray Embrey. Destroying the train in the process earns Hancock no love from the crowd, but where others see only an a****** (an oft-repeated label), Embrey sees a real opportunity — and not just for himself.
Inviting the scruffy do-gooder back home to meet the fam, Embrey pitches what deep down Hancock knows he needs most: an image reversal. On the publicist's advice, Hancock surrenders himself to multiple arrest warrants, the thinking being that after a few weeks behind bars, the world will go to pot and demand its hero back. Meanwhile, Embrey does his best to apply a little polish to this diamond in the slammer.
Sure enough, eventually Embrey’s predictions prove true and Hancock is needed. But just as the newly embraced hero begins to find humility and redemption, his forgotten past begins to find him. Saying any more would ruin a great twist.
THE CAST:
Headlining the show is Will Smith as the title hero. Besides stopping bullets and beating up baddies, the ever adaptable Smith proves once again why he's the most bankable face in Hollywood. It's tall order to demand the sort of aggressive ambivalence required to make Hancock detestably charming before his reform, but harder still to pull off the just-want-to-be-understood bit without being overly sappy. Smith hits on all cylinders, and in so doing outshines his supporting cast of Jason Bateman and Charlize Theron, who are good but not great as Ray and Mary Embrey.
THE GOOD:
There's a lot to like about Hancock, whether it's comic genius or the aforementioned mid-plot twist that fuels the second half of the film's 90 minutes. More impressive, though, is that the admittedly simple story proves so immersive (as noted, without the backing of a solid franchise). I'll chalk that up to co-writer Gilligan’s X-Files days.
THE BAD:
Unfortunately, there's also an X-Files-like penchant for leaving things unexplained. Minor but glaring is the fact that Hancock is obviously an eagle lover, and even though one of the characters asks him explicitly why, he never answers. Also, the explanation of what exactly he is (not an alien, by the way) feels a little hollow and begs for a little more fleshing out. The same could be said for a lot of the final third of the movie, actually.
'GOOD JOB':
However, the fact you walk away wanting to know more proves to me just how good the writing really is, evidence of a real depth to this film that is perhaps a little unexpected. If you want to get really heady, you could look at how it tackles things like free will or certain social issues I'll leave unnamed so as not to spoil anything. Most obvious, though, is that this is a superhero without a super villain. That's not an oversight; Hancock’s arch nemesis is himself — not just an anti-hero, but an anti-superhero. Given the character, there's no better villain, even if that's a tough point to make on screen. Hancock pulls it off pretty well, though.
RATING:
4 stars
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