Chris Pine is an interesting actor. Roles as Captain James T. Kirk in the Star Trek franchise and Steve Trevor in the DC Universe demonstrate his box-office credentials while Hell or High Water (2016) and Outlaw King (2018) indicate a willingness to challenge himself with more complex characters; flawed, reluctant heroes struggling with demons both internal and external.
The Contractor falls into the latter camp, but a weak script is the film’s undoing.
Discharged from the U. S. Special Forces James Harper (Pine) takes a private contracting job on the recommendation of friend and veteran Mike (Ben Foster). When events take a dramatic, if predictable, turn for the worse Harper is stranded, vowing vengeance.
You’ve seen similar takes before, such as in The Bourne Series of films, but director Tarik Saleh does attempt something a little different. The Contactor tackles several dark themes; suicide and drug abuse among them, themes that overpower the central plot somewhat. Saleh seems more interested in his actors, drawing strong performances from Pine and Foster, reigniting a natural chemistry seen in Hell or High Water and The Finest Hours (2016), who portray men broken by their experiences in service to a country now done with them.
The clearest sign Saleh lost faith in the script is his clear impatience to get the film over and done with, the final stand-off against Kiefer Sutherland’s obvious bad guy more of an epilogue than part of the ongoing narrative.
While The Contractor never quite reaches the heights it aspires to, the performances make it one of the better action thrillers of recent years.
Available in Theatres and On Demand and Digital on April 1st in the US.
