The Foreigner (2017)

The Foreigner (aka The Chinaman) review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

Jackie Chan has developed a persona that he cannot escape. When I saw The Foreigner in the theater, there’s a moment when his character urges to speak with Pierce Brosnan but is refused entry for carrying a Swiss Army knife. Security is about to throw him out before Brosnan stops him. “What harm can he do without his knife,” asks Brosnan. An eruption of laughter can be heard in the audience because we know Chan doesn’t need a weapon. His environment has always been his preferred tool of combat.

But The Foreigner surprises a little because this isn’t a typical Jackie Chan outing. We’re used to seeing him as the charismatic and plucky martial artist, but not that character is not present in this story. Chan plays Ngoc Minh Quan, a man who lost his wife and many daughters years ago, only to lose to his teenage and final daughter in a London bombing. He’s broken and depressed now, feeling like a zombie as he tries to decide what to do next. Watching the news like a hawk, he discovers the bombing was from some new IRA group.

The Irish government knows nothing about this, as delivered in a statement by Liam Hennessy (Pierce Brosnan). Quan doesn’t believe his story. He waits patiently for the British government to give him an answer about who the bombers are, but is turned away. He expects over the phone for Hennessy to tell him the names but receives nothing but condolences. He travels to Belfast to speak with Hennessy in person and is again refused an answer. And so begins Quan’s one-man war against a man he knows is guilty.

Despite being a darker picture in the fashion of Death Wish and Taken, Chan’s antics are still present and feel as gritty and real as they do entertaining. Now in his 60s, he’s again doing his stunts of breaking through roofs, jumping out of buildings, tumbling down stairs and using anything at his disposal as a weapon. Of course, for being older, he takes a few more punches and stabs than we’re used to seeing with Chan. It’s fitting, however, as it proves he isn’t the strong hero, as in one scene where he is wounded in the woods and struggles to survive by sealing his wounds with a heated knife.

Director Martin Campbell makes the controversial, but a smart call to not focus the story on Chan’s character. Even with the reveal of him being an ex-military operative, it’s not enough to hold the plot. Most of the film focuses on the stirring political drama of Hennessy trying to handle the bombing situation and the tensions between the UK and Ireland. He knows the bombing was instigated, but not by whom or what their specific orders were. He has an affair with his wife, but that turns out to be messier and involved with the plan. Deception and backstabbings are going on with several key political players, some of which are introduced late in the game, but always keep the sordid matters high on tension.

The political drama is so intense that Jackie Chan’s story feels almost tacked on considering how frequently he comes and goes. You could remove him entirely and still have a solid thriller, but he thankfully adds to the story by breaking up the banter with explosive action and a moody atmosphere. He brings an emotional core to his understated performance of a man that merely wants the names of the bombers and then take them out, all with that fine-tuned Chan proficiency. His commitment and proper appearance time in the film turns his take on Taken into a more finely-crafted action-thriller.

The Foreigner, unfortunately, still has a few shortfalls that prevent it from being as entertaining as it should be. There are far too many characters introduced too late in the game, included almost as though the director feared the audience would become bored if there weren't some extra layer left to unravel in this sticky web. The moments of violence are treated as real and with gravity, but come dangerously close to being a little too on the nose and relevant in their placement. The soundtrack composed by Cliff Martinez has its moments of high brooding but slips too often into the out of control synth territory where it feels more like he’s arranging for an 80s horror flick. It’s amazing how a film with such an involving story can stumble pretty hard and prevent itself from being a more intriguing and entertaining tale. Consider how the original book was called The Chinaman and everyone in the film still refers to Chan’s character as the Chinaman. If you’re going to change the racist title, you may as well change the racist slur that everyone in the British and Irish government seems to use.