Apparently,
smoking marijuana takes too much effort for Millennials. If only they could
just pop a pill and be done with it. As it just so happens, Harold Soyinka’s
dodgy pharma company has developed exactly such a product in its ultra-sketch
lab south of the border. A lot of tough customers would like to get their hands
on a sample. As a result, this will be a very bad time to fake an abduction,
but Soyinka always had bad timing. However, the drastic turn of events just
might have a liberating effect on the trod-upon worker drone in Nash Edgerton’s
Gringo (trailer here), which opens today in New York.
Soyinka
starts out as an early Walter Mitty, putting up with his exploitative boss,
Richard Rusk, because he condescendingly pretends they are friends. Yet, Rusk
has secretly seduced Soyinka’s grasping wife Bonnie, who is on the verge of
leaving her sad sack husband. That does not sit well with Elaine Markinson,
Rusk’s corporate co-president and possessive lover. Having gotten wind of an
impending merger, Soyinka tries to fake his own abduction, but it will be more
convenient for Rusk if his supposed pal is killed down there. That is really
bad O. Henry-esque news for Soyinka, especially when he is kidnapped for real.
It
is just one darned thing after another for Soyinka. Things will look up when he
is ostensibly rescued by Rusk’s merc-turned-social worker brother Mitch, but he
is still in more danger than he realizes. At least he rather enjoys crossing
paths with Sunny, an American tourist who might be even more naïve than he is.
However, her drug mule boyfriend Miles is up to his snide neck in a scheme to
smuggle out some of Rusk’s pot pills.
Gringo is about a millimeter
deep, but screenwriters Anthony Tambakis & Matthew Stone pack each second
with a plot reversal or a violent bit of slapstick humor. Edgerton cranks the
pace up to warp speed and the spritely upbeat soundtrack takes the rough edge
off a lot of the cartel violence. At times, it comes perilously close to
becoming a Ben Stiller parody of Sicario,
but poor Soyinka’s peril is always quite real and pressing.
Indeed,
Gringo showcases David Oyelowo as we
have never seen him before—as a cringy doormat. Sometimes, he is just hard to take.
On the other hand, it is jolly good fun to watch Charlize Theron vamp it up as
the emasculating Markinson. Joel Edgerton also oozes slime as Rusk. Frankly, Sharlto
Copley is almost too charismatic for the ethically ambiguous Mitch Rusk, albeit
in a weird way, but Amanda Seyfried is appealingly sweet and earnest. In
contrast, Harry Treadaway’s Miles is perhaps the most abrasive character in a
film overflowing with duplicitous sociopaths.
