A very effective revenge story!!!

Rating: 10/10 (6 January 2019)

Man On Fire is a film that i.have seen now many times. The truth is that the story is really just a run of the mill revenge story. What makes this film so good is the acting and the execution if the story. Denzel Washington has always elevated any film that he's in just by his presence. His performance in this film is one of his best. He takes the material to a much higher level.
The basic story is that John Creasy, the character played by Denzel Washington is hired by a young wealthy couple in Mexico to protect their daughter Pita, played by Dakota Fanning. Creasy is an ex-Special Forces operative that is an alcoholic and hates his life. He us full of guilt at all of the things that he has done. He goes to Mexico to see an old friend named Rayburn played by Christopher Walken. Rayburn offers him the job to protect the daughter of Samuel Ramos played by Marc Anthony. He and his wife Lisa played by Radha Mitchell need to hire a bodyguard to fulfill the requirements of their kidnap and ransom insurance since they live in Mexico City where there are a lot of kidnappings. Once Creasy arrives, Pita wants to befriend him. He resists and tells her that he is not being paid to be her friend. One night, Creasy tries to kill himself with a gun but the cartridge fails to fire. Pita persists in getting Creasy to open up and gradually he does. He helps her with her swimming competition, and they talk while she does homework. Slowly, Creasy begins to care very much for Pita. He even tries to stop drinking. One day while waiting for Pita to finish her piano lesson he notices so.e cars pull up to where she is waiting for Creasy, they are there to kidnap the girl. A shootout ensues and after Creasy is able to kill a couple of the kidnappers he is shot and Pita is taken. Initially, in the hospital Creasy is a suspect in the kidnapping and is going to charge with the killing of two police officers that were part of the kidnapping. Fearing that Creasy would be killed by the police, an agent of the AFI named Manzano and Rayburn take Creasy out of the hospital to protect him. Meanwhile,the kidnapper called The Voice contacts Samuel Ramos about negotiating ransom for Pita. Samuel is assisted by his lawyer played by Mickey Rourke. After tget agree to a place for the money drop their is an ambush and the money is stolen. After the ambush apparently Pita is killed. When Rayburn tells Creasy about Pita being dead, Creasy decides to find and kill all of those involved in the kidnapping and death of the girl. Rayburn helps him obtain some weapons and Creasy begins to investigate. The film at that point becomes what really could have been just a standard revenge film. Creasy goes and finds the perpetrators and kills them one by one, finding out more about the scheme to kidnap Pira along the way. The difference here is that before the revenge aspect of the film starts the film takes its time in exploring Creasy, Denzel Washington is great at showing the pain that Creasy is in and his lack of will to go on. Dakota Fanning is terrific as Pita. She comes across as a good but precocious girl that seems lonely. The chemistry between Washington and Fanning is really good. The scenes between them come of as very real. They don't come off as cute, but have a real tenderness that works. We get to like and feel for Creasy and Pita, so when she is gone and Creasy goes out for revenge there is an emotional core there that makes what's going on more compelling. The film is directed by Tony Scott with a lot of visual flair which is usual for him but he plays good attention to the characters in the story. Needless to say Creasy gets the bad guys and the film ends in a more or less predictable manner but is done with such conviction that it works.