Not a very hot fire

Rating: 5/10 (23 January 2005)

"Man on Fire" is a hard movie to like. It is also a hard movie not to like. It could be said that it's three movies in one. The first third of the film is a basic "getting to know you" type of movie wherein Denzel Washington's character is hired to be a bodyguard to Dakota Fanning's character. This works well, as he grudgingly becomes her friend as well as her bodyguard. The second part of the film is about her kidnapping and his attempts to find her. It's in this section that the movie goes haywire. You tend to feel, with all the camera tricks, captions with a mind of their own, and jerky, over-the-top direction, that the director was trying to obscure the fact that he didn't know how to tell the story in this part of the movie. He calls attention to himself much too often. Plus, this middle part of the film resembles a Charles Bronson "Death Wish" type of movie, about a character bent on revenge, more than anything else, which drags the movie down. The final third of the film is more of a mix of the first two parts. Some good moments, some not so good. There was a lot of work put into this movie. When it works, it works well, and when it doesn't work, it doesn't work at all. It would've been better without all the technical wizardry and just told the story.