A nice change of pace for Denzel

Rating: 7/10 (24 July 2004)

Granted, I saw this as an in-flight movie, so I probably didn't get the full experience -- though my audio was fine, my video consisted of two choices -- a seven-inch screen twenty feet away with proper color or one four feet away at an angle where everything is tainted greenish-brown, or wholly inverted color, so dark blues show up as pale greys, and so on. Adds a wrinkle to the viewing experience, to say the least, and they told us up front the movie had edited for screen size, content, and time. And they weren't kidding; the credits rolled as we were just about to land (I half-worried they would cut off the finale).
All that in mind, Man is still a pretty good film. Denzel Washington plays Creasey, a hard-edged ex-agent who's seen better days and is set up by his pal Rayburn (Christopher Walken) for some bodyguard duty in Mexico, where apparently kids are kidnapped with alarming frequency. While Creasey is kind of a crab, the child, Pita (Dakota Fanning) is enjoyably precocious, but in a good way. Her infectious good humor rubs off on Creasey, who slowly begins to crawl out of his shell when of course she is kidnapped.

Most of the rest of the film chronicles Creasey's efforts to resolve the situation, with varying degrees of inventiveness and violence (though I imagine some of the worse violence was trimmed from my version), and surprise, surprise, Denzel is incredibly effective in the type of role you associate more with someone like DeNiro. Denzel plays the hard-ass amazingly well, and he gives the role a nice subtle emotional undercurrent. Walken is good, but he's not in the movie enough for my liking -- a little more of him would have gone a long way. Fortunately Denzel gets to play off Dakota Fanning, so we can understand his quick bonding with the girl. Fanning is her usual excellent self (she's given more terrific turns than most actresses ever do, and she's what, eleven? What a future she could have!) and her Pita is really easy to like.
The film is violent, but not more so than most R-rated fare, and at least it offers some character and emotional context to go with all the explosions and gunshots. While Man might not be everyone's cup of tea, itâs certainly worth a rental if you get the chance.