by G. E. Uke, Reporter

Jason Statham has created so many macho kung fu movies over the years that you can immediately get a sense of the movie’s tone if you see he’s in it. As an actor, he’s reached a point where his name is a lot like soy sauce: a condiment that delivers bad boy, suave brit, and ass-kicker to whatever he’s sprinkled on. After watching Beekeeper, I expected A Working Man to be along the same lines, and it is, but some important differences warrant exposition.

Firstly, A Working Man is much darker than most Jason Statham movies. The character of Levon Cade (Jason Statham) is more traumatized, brutal, morally gray, and lacking in British charm than any prior role I can recall. A Working Man is about a retired special forces soldier who works as a foreman for a construction company. When his employer’s daughter Jenny Garcia (Arianna Rivas) gets kidnapped, he reluctantly goes on a murder-investigation rampage against the Russian Bratva to get her back. But this is no ransom movie: the girl is a victim of human trafficking, slated to be sold off to a cruel billionaire with perverse homicidal tastes. The trail to her kidnappers takes Levon through mob mansions, filthy apartment buildings, dark nightclubs, creepy motorcycle bars, dirty bayou gambling houses, and worse. He tortures and kills a LOT of people (graphically), and occasionally the scene cuts to the kidnapped girl to show what’s happening to her. I won’t go into details, but her treatment justifies his brutality. At one point she gets folded up and put into a suitcase on wheels, which is a nightmare of mine.

Apart from Jason and Arianna’s solid acting I have three other shout outs. The first goes out to David Harbour (Stranger Things) in his role as Levon’s old blind war buddy Gunny. The second goes to Maximilian Osinski (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D) in his role as the sleazy human trafficker Dimi Kolisnyk. The third goes to Chidi Ajufo (The Gentlemen) in his role as the drug dealing motorcycle gang leader Dutch, who sits on a THRONE MADE OF MOTORCYCLE PARTS. Everyone else did their part, but none of them were exceptionally noteworthy because they didn’t get much screen time. Most died too soon or simply didn’t have that many lines. 

While this movie was enjoyable for its gritty shooty beat-em-up ambiance, I confess that it wasn’t great for me personally. The graphic treatment of the kidnapped girl turned my stomach, and I’ll even go a step further by venturing that any loving parent cursed with a beautiful daughter will likely feel the same. Many of the backdrops in this film were exceptionally dirty and dark, to a degree that made it feel like one of those “world of darkness” noir flicks. Is it possible for a dark action movie to be “too” dark, to the point where it makes parents uncomfortable? I didn’t used to think so, and maybe I’m just getting older, but this one did it for me. 

Rating:
ComicsOnline gives A Working Man – 3.5 of 5 gritty stars. It did what it set out to do, but what it set out to do was punch me in the gut so…I can’t love it too much for that.

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