‘Redemption’ is Something Different for Statham

Everyone who has watched a couple of Jason Statham movies knows to expect to see him bang a couple of blokes’ heads together, bleed from a nasty looking gash and leap onto or out of moving vehicles while his hairline recedes handsomely into oblivion.

Incredibly, ‘Redemption’ (2013) isn’t much like that.

Yes, Statham beats people up and dodges disaster but the film also reveals a more sensitive side to the actor that sees him delivering a solid performance in an action film that relies just as much on dialogue as it does on the perceived thrill of a thrashing.

Offering a little reprieve from action films set in the US, the film tells its story in the seedier parts of London where Joseph Smith, an AWOL special forces soldier, is living out his days as a vagabond and a drunk.

The reason for this becomes evident in a series of flashbacks as well as through his friendship with a nun that helps him improve his life while he continues to do some pretty reprehensible things to make money for his wife and kid.

Thin and desperate ruminations about what it means to be “a good man” abound and there is some seriously strange back story that keeps this film interesting.

‘Redemption’ is definitely something different for Statham, the Polish lead actress is relatively unknown but engaging and the plot is never predictable, which is refreshing.

Watch this if you don’t like to know where a movie is going or how it ends. And if you’ve ever found yourself rooting for anti-hero with a cockney accent.

‘Redemption’ (2013) is now showing at Ster-Kinekor.

– martha@namiban.com.na

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