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Opens Feb. 10Denzel Washington?s star power is heavily taxed in Safe House, since he?s forced to generate enough screen magnetism to keep the audience interested even during those moments when he?s off-screen and we?re left alone with Ryan Reynolds, the least charismatic leading man working in the movies today.
It?s the damnedest thing, though: Washington pulls it off. Director Daniel Espinosa?s tale of double-crossing spies is conventionally plotted, and action-heavy without any bravura action sequences, and yet I enjoyed the trip.
Playing Tobin Frost, a former CIA agent who went rogue nine years ago and has been using his contacts and knowledge to sell intelligence to the highest bidder ever since, Washington keeps his character?s motivations closely guarded and creates a tiny bit of uncertainty even when you?re 99 percent sure you know where the movie?s headed.
The story kicks into gear when Frost, having obtained a mysterious intelligence file, is chased by some unseemly characters and only escapes by entering the United States consulate in Cape Town, South Africa. Back at CIA HQ in Langley, Virginia, deputy director Whitford (Sam Shepard) and senior agents Barlow (Brendan Gleeson) and Linklater (Vera Farmiga) then have a roomful of analysts drop everything they?re doing to focus on helping to bring in Frost for interrogation.
The decision is made to have a team deliver Frost to a safe house in Cape Town where Matt Weston (Reynolds), a low-level CIA officer, has been stationed for the past 12 months with nothing to do but sit by the phone. That and, in his off-hours, shower with his sexy French girlfriend, Ana (Nora Arnezeder).
Shortly after the questioning-through-torture of Frost begins, the power cuts off in the safe house and an armed assault team enters. The assailants are the same men who chased Frost to the consulate. They plan to take him alive, but are happy to kill the interrogation team in the process. Fortunately, Weston is able to smuggle Frost out the back of the house and escape.
The movie becomes a sort of buddy road-trip flick, with Weston attempting to secure Frost long enough for an extraction team to get to South Africa, while evading the bad guys. During their hours on the run together, Frost plants doubt in Weston?s mind about who the real enemy is, exactly what game it is they?re playing, and whether Weston truly wants the life he?s chosen as an intelligence operative.
There comes a moment that?s presented as a big twist, but anyone who?s seen a spy movie or a film about corrupt cops will likely see it coming long before. I also didn?t buy the evolution of the relationship between Frost and Weston, since I don?t like to think that our government would ever hire such trusting spies.
What I liked most was Washington, the intensity he brings to the role even when he?s sneaking in that sly smile of his. He makes you believe he knows something that you don?t. Even if it turns out that, yes, you?ve seen this picture before.
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