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Writer-director Guy Ritchie and action star Jason Statham re-team for the first time since 2005’s Revolver for a tense, brooding, and multi-perspective story of revenge with Wrath of Man.
The film hits the same beats as most revenge thrillers: it follows H (Statham) as he tries to avenge the death of his son at the hands of armored truck robbers. However, Ritchie’s non-linear storytelling adds depth and perspective to H, the armored truck company he infiltrates in the hopes of flushing out the group of robbers, and the robbers themselves. At the start, you have a basic understanding of the gruesome ordeal that connects these characters, but by the end, you really get the full scope and Ritchie and his fellow scriptwriters flesh out these characters incredibly well.
When we initially meet H, he appears to be the strong silent type who’s hiding his true intentions and is more skillful than he lets on. It’s easy to see that he’s putting on an act. In most other modern action films, he would simply have some type of secretive military background that would be glossed over in quick dialogue. Here, though, the film fleshes out his dark background incredibly well and makes it the basis for his brooding sense of wrath waiting to be unleashed. The same can be said about the group of robbers, as the film takes the time to delve into their history, motivations, and dynamics as well as their calculated nature really elevates the storytelling of their heists. All of Ritchie’s engaging storytelling pays off immensely in weaving these different narratives and characters into each other to create an incredibly deep and engaging story of greed and wrath.
The performances help make the storytelling and characters engaging, as they carry both the film’s gestating, brooding tone of bad things to come and some of the humor that Ritchie’s films are known for. Statham gives H’s unrelenting focus on revenge through silent brooding. From start to finish, you know he’s not going to stop until his form of justice is served. It’s great to see Ritchie and Statham utilize greater storytelling rather than smarmy humor to make H so captivating. Ritchie, as per usual, creates an entire cast of well-rounded characters that come with some fun performances.
It’s great to see Holt McCallany get some great material to work with outside of Mindhunter. He exhibits a good range of warm friendliness and mysterious intentions as Bullet. It’s always nice to see Josh Hartnett and he delivers some fun comical moments with Boy Sweat Dave’s outer “tough guy” masculinity masking his inner cowardice. The entire group of robbers is a blast, with Jefferey Donovan and Scott Eastwood’s sinister performances as definite standouts. Ritchie always has a knack for getting together a great cast and Wrath of Man is no exception.
Where the film is a bit of a diversion from Ritchie’s usual style, for better and worse, is in its tone. Wrath of Man doesn’t contain a lot of the trademark Ritchie comedy as it maintains a much darker and more serious tone. This change works well for the characters and is elevated by both the very stylistic opening credits and the incredibly brooding score from Christopher Benstead. As a big revenge thriller, the dark and ominous feel works well for the story it tells, but it’s definitely not one of Ritchie’s most exciting works. Those looking for the bombastically hilarious stories and characters of something like The Gentlemen won’t find that here. There’s not even all that much action, although the final heist sequence is amazing and unbelievably thrilling, and the more slow-building storytelling definitely hinders the pacing a bit.
It’s also worth noting that although Ritchie’s non-linear storytelling is very effective most of the time in adding depth, there are a few occasions where it drops the ball. There’s a whole FBI element that’s thrown in and isn’t explained much in terms of the connections it has to H. They just show up every now and again and don’t add anything to the plot. There’s a moment where H’s new and old life collide that kicks off the part of the story where we learn more about H, but this collision never goes anywhere or comes back when every other story starts to collide. The ending as a whole is also incredibly underwhelming since it delivers the big blow that’s been building but doesn’t deliver a satisfying glimpse into the aftermath.
Wrath of Man isn’t necessarily Ritchie’s most exciting film or one that carries all of his enjoyable comedic energy, but it’s damn good showing of his strong storytelling, character-building, and suspense-building chops being put into a well-acted and engaging revenge thriller.
