Sean Penn’s The Gunman hits theaters this Friday.
This film follows a gunman, Jim Terrier (Sean Penn), as agents and hitmen chase him across Europe after an assigned assassination of a major figure in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mining industry. The Gunman is a cookie-cutter action movie. Another subplot explores Terrier’s wife, Annie (Jasmine Trinca), who leaves him for his friend, Felix (Javier Bardem), after Terrier assassinates the mining official, which forces him leave the Congo.
The film is riddled with clichés. The movie rushes the set up of major plot points, making the story hard to understand at times. The many ideas and vague subplots are sloppy and there are many instances of inconsistency in the story. The portrayal of Annie is a shallow one because of the inherent centrality of Penn’s character to the plot. Annie is without a strong voice. She wants nothing to do with Terrier after seeing him again for the first time in eight years since the assassination, but quickly recovers and goes to his room to have sex with him.
That said, the acting was fine all around. Notable performances belonged to Mark Rylance and Javier Bardem. Both men are astounding actors with beautiful depth and commitment. Idris Elba, another phenomenal actor, also has a cameo