Michael
is a lot like Jason Bourne, but at least he does not have any commitment
issues. He would be perfectly happy to settle down and start a family, but his
shadowy past will not let him in director-screenwriter Ben Medina’s ECCO,
which opens today in Jersey.
Michael
never told his wife Abby about his shadowy past, partly because he is not one
hundred percent sure of it himself. Now gainfully employed on a fishing boat,
we can assume his history involves the contract killing that opened the film,
or else why would Medina show it to us? Presumably the sailor who is lucky at
cards was once the assassin who pulls off a spectacular hit on a private plane
and then goes home to Aubrey, his fashion photographer girlfriend.
As
viewers might expect, bad guys will be stalking the silent, brooding anti-hero
in both timelines—and they will come loaded for bear. Frankly, the details
regarding the shadowy group Michael was formerly associated with remain sketchy
throughout the film. In fact, Medina seems to rely on audience familiarity with
previous covert conspiracy capers to fill in the blanks on their own.
That
is certainly problematic, but the greater concern is Medina’s sluggish pacing.
This film takes an awfully long time just to get out of the blocks. Partly,
that is due to the stylized, vintage 1970’s paranoid thriller vibe he is going
for. A little of that is cool, especially given Duncan Cole strikingly stylish noir
cinematography, but after a while it impedes the suspense and dampens the
energy level. Plus, the hazy villain walks with a limp—a rather unfortunate bit
of stereotyping, but one that rarely ever gets called out.
Still,
Lathrop Walker is quite good as Michael and Helen Grace Donald is notably both
seductive and ultimately quite haunting as Aubrey. In fact, the ensemble is
quite good, but they have their work cut out for them, due to what is on the
page. Basically, the dialogue is over-written and the narrative is
under-written. Yet, it still clocks in with a running time just over two hours.
It
is tricky to write about ECCO, because there are obviously a lot of twists
that should be not be spoiled, even though most astute viewers will be way ahead
of the film. It also boasts some slickly executed action scenes, but there is
too much slack in between. We respect the look and feel of ECCO, but
still can’t recommend it when it opens today (8/9) in Jersey, at the AMC Jersey
Gardens and the AMC Palisades.
