TL;DR – This is a film that did not know if it wanted to be a silly Jason Statham film or a serious Jason Statham film, and that failure to get the tone right doomed a genially strong start.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

A Working Man Review –

I don’t think it is quite a reach to say that there are some actors out there, whether through typecasting or passion or skill, who end up playing the same or very similar characters in every movie they are in. One very notable example of that is Jason Statham, who historically had a character that worked in both comedic and more serious roles. But then The Beekeeper happened, and we got to see a different side to his persona. Well, when I found out he was teaming up again with the director of The Beekeeper, I was excited to see what we got … I should have tempered my expectations.   

So, to set the scene, Levon Cade (Jason Statham) is a former Royal Marine who now works as a foreman on a construction site in Chicago to be closer to his daughter Merry (Isla Gie). Levon had a difficult transition to civilian life and was helped by the Garcia family. Joe Garcia (Michael Peña) runs the construction company, but his daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas) helps with the books. One night, Jenny goes out with her college friends to celebrate the end of a semester, not knowing that she is being hunted. When she doesn’t return home, her family is distraught and turns to Levon, the one person who they know can help.

Okay, I am going to be very strict with this film, and we will get to why in a moment, but it is not a complete disaster. Jason Statham is a charismatic performer, and that still leaks through in places. I think Michael Peña absolutely nailed his role. I honestly felt deeply for his predicament because he connected with that raw emotion. Indeed, the start of the film is probably its most substantial component, including the opening action scene. They nail the tone and the vibe, and it gives Jason Statham some quality banter with Isla Gie, who might be the MVP of the film in some scenes.

However, even though the film has a strong opening, and while it is not quite Taken-level, the central goal of finding Jenny is a strong one for the film, none of that helps when the movie falls flat on its face narratively in the second act. So much so that I found myself disassociating from it at times. From the moment competing Russian Mob elements were added to the story, you knew that the story was in trouble because it did not have the strength to pull something like that off, and it showed. My understanding is that this screenplay was first pitched as a TV show, and if that is correct, they didn’t do a good job of condensing the narrative down for a film runtime. It didn’t help that the action scenes in this section of the film are a hackneyed mess of cuts at times. Nor are our main antagonists Viper (Emmett J. Scanlan) and Artemis (Eve Mauro) kind of nothing characters, and David Harbour does not really add anything to the proceedings.  

All of this flows into the central issue for the film; it doesn’t know what tone it is pitching. Action films can come in many flavours, but they mostly sit somewhere on the Silly-to-Serious spectrum. However, with A Working Man, we spend the film swinging wildly from stern down-the-line serious in one scene to abject silliness in the next. Can you have silly films with dramatic moments and vice-versa? Of course, that is Deadpool’s bread and butter. But you need some narrative foundation to make that work. Here, it chops and changes so often you can never get a firm grounding. For example, the final line in the film is said with such complete seriousness right after an absolute farce of an action scene that it elicited active groans from the audience I watched the movie with, as did the comically large Moon at one point.              

In the end, do we recommend A Working Man? Look, it pains me to say, no, no, I don’t. I honestly went into this film with relatively high hopes, and there are some moments right at the start, including a chair over a pool that lands as they are supposed to. It is just unfortunate that the narrative unravels to the point of eye-rolls at some of the dialogue and character choices. Have you watched A Working Man? Let us know what you thought in the comments below.If you liked A Working Man, we would recommend to you The Beekeeper.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of A Working Man
Directed by – David Ayer
Screenplay by – Sylvester Stallone & David Ayer
Based on – Levon’s Trade by Chuck Dixon
Music by – Jared Michael Fry
Cinematography by – Shawn White
Edited by – Fred Raskin
Production/Distribution Companies – Black Bear, Cedar Park Entertainment, Punch Palace Productions, Balboa Productions, Amazon MGM Studios, Universal Studios & Warner Bros Pictures.
Starring – Jason Statham, Noemi Gonzalez, Michael Peña, Isla Gie, Arianna Rivas, David Harbour, Jason Flemyng, Emmett J. Scanlan, Eve Mauro, Maximilian Osinski, Max Croes, Kristina Poli, Andrej Kaminsky & Alana Boden
Rating – Australia: MA15+; Canada: 14A; Germany: 18; New Zealand: R; United Kingdom: 15; United States: R