Nobody 2

Once again, I find myself wondering if I watched the same movie as the rest of the world. The consensus seems to be Nobody 2 is a storyless string of action sequences that is little more than a simple-minded Saturday afternoon dad movie that rips off John Wick. I'm sorry, but that's wrong. Just wrong. Nobody 2 is a lot more than that. Nobody 2, like its predecessor, is about mental health, family, and embracing what makes you happy. In the original, main character Hutch had lost himself in the malaise of a humdrum, office-drone job. His marriage had deteriorated into little more being roommates, to the point where his wife set up a barricade of pillows between them in bed. He was emotionally and mentally absent from his role as a father, as a husband, and as an individual. He only finds himself when he gets sucked back into his old life of being a black-ops cleaner. Nobody 2 swings the pendulum in the other direction; Hutch's involvement in black-ops assassin work is now totally consuming his life (due to his having to pay for burning up the Russian mafia's stash of money), he's not physically present for his family. He's home extremely late, and sleeps in the basement so as not to disturb anyone when he comes home. He's missing his son's basketball games, and the fact that his son is starting to lash out violently at school. So he decides to plan a family vacation to a small theme park he went to as a kid, in the hopes of some family bonding and making of memories, only he manages to find all new trouble. Now, I'm not going to say Nobody 2 handles its themes with a Freudian level of analysis or anything, but it also doesn't do anything less than Nobody did, and that got tons of praise. Hutch goes out of his way to keep his family safe, not involve them in the chaos, and even tries at a few points to de-escalate the situation with words rather than actions. Getting out of the problem is his #1 goal, but the bad guys won't let him. Again, it's not the kind of character depth you'd find in a David Mamet script, but it has a depth of its own, far more than I think people want to give it credit for. And Bob Odenkirk's performance is key to selling Hutch's internal struggles, both with how his job is holding him hostage, and his dedication to his family. This is miles and miles away from the rich, layered, nuanced character of Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman, but Hutch Mansell is far more relatable. He's a guy with emotional baggage, trying to process it and fumbling along the way, trying to do right by his wife and kids, and not always making the best decisions. Odenkirk is fantastic at embodying that. This is first and foremost an action movie, though, and the action is superbly directed. No speed-runs through 27 cuts in 11 seconds. Fight choreography and cinematography make every hit have weight behind it. For everyone who dismisses Nobody as a John Wick rip-off, they miss the point that Wick's fights are like video games; beautiful, balletic, and utterly preposterous. Nobody's are still beautiful in their movement, but have a far more grounded, guttural, visceral feel to them. They feel nasty, and the battle damage feels real and cumulative. Hutch isn't falling out of third story windows onto an Escalade and walking away like nothing happened. Every fight, he's a little slower, a little more banged up, and a little farther away from top form. If John Wick's descent after the second movie into ridiculousness and Flanderization annoys you like it does me, Nobody 2 doesn't make that mistake. Hutch is a living, breathing, regular guy, who just happens to be awesome at kicking maximum ass, but still takes damage like a regular human being would. That's not to say Nobody 2 is perfect. I can't believe I'm about to complain about its run time, but I have to; at 88 minutes WITH commercials, Nobody 2 is as compact as it gets, but that comes with the cost of the story not always feeling as fleshed out as it could be. With three antagonists, 88 minutes doesn't leave much time in between its fights for these characters to breathe, and this is especially evident in Sharon Stone's final boss character, Lendina. Her character is built up to be not just ruthless, but dangerously unstable, and the movie just doesn't have enough time to fully build her up as the threat it says she is. Lendina is also hampered by either a fundamental miscasting, or a performance unguided by the director. Stone lowers her voice to a register that is downright silly, like a child imitating their dad's voice, and it is not intimidating at all. She has the look -- her dirty blond hair slicked back to look like every 80's movie East German villain you've ever seen -- but she doesn't have the gravitas to pull off the intimidating lunatic role. That, or she's trying for some kind of version of it that just isn't working. I'm not sure which. As you can see by the score, though, those minor quibbles aren't enough to ruin the experience. I loved this movie. I came in expecting more of what Nobody offered -- a smart, humanized version of what John Wick did -- and it gave me that. I don't know what everybody else was looking for, but don't listen to them. If you liked the first one, you won't be disappointed here.