Washington is on fire in Scott's best

Rating: 8/10 (24 April 2010)

Man on Fire has a plot seen before in many, many works of fiction and it's more than likely that if you know the premise then you can give a reasonably accurate prediction of what will happen in this film. However it is rare that it is executed so well, with terrific acting, direction, and characters. Tony Scott's directorial style may well irritate many people, the camera rarely sits still, the angle changes frequently and can be quite disorientating in the action sequences. For that reason Man on Fire is best seen on a big screen, then this problem is pretty much eradicated and you can appreciate how effective his style can be, from making action sequences that bit more visceral to his ingenious use of subtitles that reflect the way the character speaking feels rather than merely giving a translation.
Frequent Tony Scott collaborator Denzel Washington stars as Creasy who has a background in special forces/counter terrorism but when we first meet him he's drinking from a hip flask in the middle of the day. We don't learn much about Creasy's past but we don't need to either the pain and trauma is written all over Washington's face and comes out through his dialogue. Washington is on great on form in this film. Creasy is hired by Sammy, a rich businessman and native of Mexico who has an American wife Lisa (Radha Mitchell), to bodyguard their daughter Pita (Dakota Fanning). The relationship between Pita and her new guardian is the centre of the first half of the film. Great child performances are very rare but surely Dakota Fanning gives one here as the adorable child who shows to Creasy what life should be about.
So when she is kidnapped you know all hell is going to break loose as Creasy goes after her kidnappers like a man possessed. Here, in the second half of the film, Scott delivers some fantastic action sequences and what sets Man on Fire apart from many films is that we as an audience care about Creasy and Pita, they matter to us because Scott took the time to show us in the first act. And the film never loses this heart through all the violence that permeates the second act.
There are strong supporting performances from Radha Mitchell and Christopher Walken too but others such as Marc Anthony and Mickey Rourke are a little flat. With the well honed characters of Pita and Creasy Scott has produced a fantastic revenge thriller, this kind of film doesn't get much better than this.