Safe House
At: Inox and other cinemas
Directed by Daniel Espinosa
Cast: Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Robert Patrick, Vera Farmiga and others
Rating: * *
Mention the title Safe House and anybody who has seen enough Hollywood actioners would be able to come up with a skeleton of a plot about two (or more) men on the run, and would not be too far off the mark.
Daniel Espinosa’s film is a generic thriller, the kind audiences watch because they like typical thrillers, are fans of the actors in it, or have nothing else to do. The Cape Town seen in this film is not what is seen in so many Bollywood movies shot there—certainly not a tourist spot.
Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington), is a former elite agent who has turned traitor and is sought by his nasty colleagues. When he gives himself up at the US Consulate South Africa, he is taken to a safe house for interrogation. The bad guys reach them, however, and Frost takes off with rookie agent Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds), who was assigned as his minder. There is a mole in the CIA and Frost is obviously not wanted alive, lest he spills secrets nobody wants revealed.
The plot moves in more or less predictable fashion with pit stops for chases and shootouts. Actors like Brendan Gleeson, Vera Farmiga, and Sam Shepard add weight to the cast, but are not required to anything particularly useful. This does not have the excitement and surprises of, say, Training Day, and it’s a criminal waste of the combined talents of Washington and Reynolds, who, mercifully, do not pull off a buddy number. But some humour, some playing off one against the other, some sparks would have been preferable to this over long thriller-without-thrills.