The Fraternity tells him that he's the son of its late best assassin, and that his mission is to eliminate his father's killer. McAvoy makes you root for his victories over his own personal oppressors (the list contains some surprises) and his father's enemies. He isn't a pure soul, but you feel he's out for justice, not just vengeance. The makers of Wanted understand the wish-fulfillment dynamics of socially irresponsible fantasy: We want Gibson to opt out of his own world and become the top gun in his new one precisely because he is a man of worth, substance and feeling. The question is, can he stay a man of worth, substance and feeling if he's a ruthless executioner?
The movie revels in absurdity without turning into camp; as the Fraternity's leader, Sloan (an homage to the agency boss in TV's Alias), Morgan Freeman explains the Fraternity's rigamarole with a sage omniscience that's uproarious in its very calm. And Jolie gets to show what a jolly performer she can be when she's enjoying herself. She knows that less is more when it comes to playing femme fatales; her emotion is pointed yet minimal, her flesh revealed in peek-a-boo fashion.
Jolie's characterization is a compendium of appraising glances and knowing half-smiles; in the middle of the mayhem, it becomes subtle and moving. But the crucial talent who makes it all work is McAvoy. He puts over the emotions at both extremes - from the minimal worminess of the oppressed office worker to the unleashed fury of a vengeance seeker - and every gradation between.
Has any young actor displayed the range that McAvoy has in movie after movie over the past few years, from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Last King of Scotland to Atonement and this movie? The crux of McAvoy's performance is that he plays Gibson not as a closet brutality freak but as a brutalized sensitive soul. When he joints the sadomasochistic rituals of the Fraternity, he's more like Edward Norton in Fight Club than Norton in The Incredible Hulk. In fact, when McAvoy's Gibson screams that he joins the society because "I don't know who I am," what he goes through with Jolie is similar to what Norton went through with Brad Pitt in Fight Club: a crucible of blood. His Fraternity trainers repeatedly beat and stab him to the point of death, then dunk him into an amazingly recuperative bath. The sight of Jolie's Fox emerging bare-backed from another sunken tub is even more restorative than this Spartan spa treatment.
Loosely basing their scenario on the six-issue comic-book series and graphic novel of the same name, director Bekmembatov and his screenwriters (Chris Morgan, and Michael Brandt and Derek Hass, who did the 3:10 to Yuma remake) have imagined the assassins' powers in ways that permit McAvoy's emotional input and our identification. They key the scenes to McAvoy's trepidation and delight, and build to a set of turnarounds that are breathtaking in their daring and in their unpredictable resolution. Because the filmmakers make their setup so dynamic, they can pack their movie with turns equivalent to those in an origin story and a sequel. Wanted makes you want to see a third film in the series - and see it right now.
michael.sragow@baltsun.com
Wanted
(Universal) Starring Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman. Directed by Timur Bekmambetov. Rated R for bloody violence, pervasive language and some sexuality. Time 110 minutes.
