Fun Righteous Vengeance

Rating: Null/10 (25 April 2004)

*some spoilers*
Despite being sold as an action flick, "Man On Fire" is essentially a gripping, dizzying (literarily) thriller with a couple of action sequences and yet another typical fine performance by Mr. Washington and yet another -aren't I cool with my jaggedness and rough direction/editing- by Mr. Tony Scott. Plus a script that is a bit more clever than it should be, these elements work to help us forget the film's familiar, generic core, and by the moment I saw the vengeful Washington character torturing a corrupt Mexican cop by cutting off his fingers as Puccini's famous aria "Un Bel Di Vedremo" played in the soundtrack, I had to concede I was viewing quality entertainment.
Which is very surprising, considering that I'm not a big fan of the -you wronged me I will wrong you and your clan- formula. In those cases the heroes or anti-heroes rarely get my sympathy should they come into danger due to the fact that they are placing themselves in danger by their own will and the fact that they become no different then the scum they will inevitably wipe out, an irony I'm very tired off. What's unique about MAN ON FIRE is that its vengeance theme is character driven--for a moment an unsociable, hard and cold man experiences friendship with a young girl only to have this contact with innocence and to his humane side snatched away from him. It is a relationship that, however ephemeral is touching and effective in the way it makes sense out of the brutality that ensues. The Washington character, one realizes, isn't a noble man resorting to extreme violence for a loved one. He's a monster reverting back to his former self only because a cruel world wouldn't let him be any other way. It's a dark, gloomy and slightly depressing universe MAN ON FIRE is set in--a world in which no good deed goes unpunished and evil is prevalent even among the supposed victims and good guys.
But the narrative is gripping, as are the few action sequences. Rather than driving the film what little action there is emerges from the story in a suspenseful, focused fashion--not needlessly prolonged, but cleverly short and maintained while managing to add on to the atmosphere of Hell that drenches the film. I heard somewhere that the original MAN OF FIRE had the little girl dead--and most of the film the Washington character is under that presumption. The ambiguity regarding her supposed death this time, I assume, is a result of Hollywood being Hollywood. This time, quite frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way, because Dakota Fanning, despite being creepy in the sense all precocious child actors are creepy, is irresistibly cute and charming. Killing her off would've been a bit too much.

"Creasy is an artist.," says a horribly underused Christopher Walken, "He's about to paint his masterpiece." Well, the Bride's vengeance and its repercussions is more of a masterpiece--but Creasy's is nonetheless thrilling. Though Scott here is overly self-indulgent with his familiar brand of direction through unceasing camera movement/too much editing he's confident and, in toto, handles the material well and makes Man On Fire acceptable entertainment in every sense. He who demands more had no right walking into it in the first place.