Good Job

Rating: Null/10 (27 September 2009)

It was wholly predictable that this Will Smith film would receive mixed reviews upon its release last year. It's a film that is impossible to pigeonhole – in terms of both genre and mood – which is something critics and many filmgoers don't like. If you're going to make a film about superheroes, their reasoning goes, then you must fill the screen with daring exploits, comic book villains, and world-in-peril scenarios. The superhero must be the good guy throughout, and the PR guy – no matter what the genre – must always, always be bad.
Here we have an unshaven, drunken superhero who saves people in peril while possessing no real interest or true desire to help (in fact, given his disinterest and the public's lack of appreciation, it's difficult to understand why he bothers at all). He regularly screws things up, hurling a beached whale out to sea where it crashes onto a boat, and causing millions of dollars worth of damage every time he performs an act of bravery. These early sequences are quite funny – although not in a laugh out loud way – and suggest a pleasing ability on the part of writers Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan to think outside of the box (for want of a better term). The city mayor publicly complains about the expense of his exploits and urges him to go to New York, while bystanders at a level crossing where Hancock has just saved PR man Jason Bateman from certain death criticise the way in which he did it and encourage the guy to sue.
The mood is pretty dark for much of the time, and Smith's pretty boy looks are sacrificed (until his character begins to undergo redemption, at least) under the glare of harsh lighting. We probably see a truer image of what Smith really looks like here: the rougher skin, the lines, the heavier features of a forty-year-old man that are magically stripped away by ingenious lighting (just compare him in the prison scenes and the restaurant scene), and it suggests that he could make a highly believable bad guy if he chose to.
As Hancock undergoes his transformation thanks to the help of the PR man he saved, a totally unexpected twist is thrown into the mix which gives the film its third act just as it's beginning to look like its going nowhere. Of course this is where the plot holes begin to appear, but every film has holes and this one has fewer than many other films which enjoy a better reputation. In the end the film is all about the superhero saving himself – as it is throughout, when you think about it – and this is possibly why it isn't as appreciated as it should be. The film's left open for a sequel, which is already rumoured to have the green light. It's a shame; I think this is one of those films that deserves to stand alone.