“Safe House” is an edgy, stylish, frenetic, please-do-not-stand-up-until-the-ride-is-over action movie. If “action” is the right descriptive word, seeming rather limp and a bit of a cliche when referencing this film.
The best of the genre, such as “Safe House,” have long ago evolved into high-production projects with large budgets and A-list actors, all polished to a high gloss.
And speaking of the A-list, Denzel Washington delivers a fine portrayal as Tobin Frost, a CIA agent gone rogue, traitorous and brilliant, and a man hunted for more than a decade by global intelligence agencies.
Safe House
Washington, in mid-career — he was 57 in December — has begun to take on niche roles that are against type (“Training Day”), though always possessing his signature cool and inherent likeability even when he’s unlikable.
In “Safe House,” he’s a man on the run with assassins in hot pursuit, and in a moment of desperation takes shelter in the U.S. Embassy in Cape Town, South Africa. The officials immediately transfer him to an agency safe house.
In charge of the safe house is junior agent Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds), who has spent one year in what for him feels like solitary confinement, having had not one “guest.” And then, shattering the tedium, Frost arrives, along with a debriefing team of special ops who immediately begin what they know will be a lengthy and arduous interrogation. They clearly believe that waterboarding without foreplay is the go-to method to extract information. And it’s then that things turn ugly: the safe house is breached by some very lethal people. Who they are and why they want Frost is unclear.
Let the games begin. Weston and Frost run for their lives while the agency is desperate to bring them in. And it’s at this point that the narrative gets seriously ratcheted up. Cinematographer Oliver Word, of the “Bourne” films, using smash cuts and staccato edits to great advantage, creates a sense of delicious chaos cinema. But this is chaos that is well controlled and the coherency of the film is never compromised.
It all holds together nicely, testimony to the fine cast of secondary characters and the superb directing by Daniel Espinosa, a Swedish filmmaker with serious chops who manages to keep the audience guessing right up to the last. There also is a satisfying denouement offering a satisfying ending, similar to the last scene in “The Bourne Identity.”
As a setting, Cape Town is exotic and foreign, and the flat South African sunlight buttresses the overall tone of the film. “Safe House” takes the B-movie genre and places it firmly in the A-movie camp with evident brio. Actually, it’s far more than an exhilarating ride.
By Chris Honoré
