Review: Free Fire Is A Big Mess, But Not An Awful One
- Jul 30, 2017
- 2 min read
What happens if you mix budget Tarantino, a comedy chamber piece, a stellar main cast, and the 70s? That's a good question, and you're gonna have to bear with us as The Last Reviewer puts all its manpower into reviewing Ben Wheatley's strange festival film, Free Fire.
A contingent of the IRA, led by Frank (Michael Smiley) and Chris (Cillian Murphy) meet up with Justine and Ord (Brie Larson and Armie Hammer) to buy weapons from the notorious South African arms dealer, Vernon (Sharlto Copely). But when event from the past few hours come to light and the meet falls apart, it's every man and woman for themselves in a battle royale of less than cinematic proportions.
Free Fire isn't a big movie and yet, it's easy to lose track of what characters are up to and whether they are alive, and it's through this that the movie's "plot twist" comes. It's deceptive staging rather than clever writing, and it was pretty frustrating because the only thing that makes it a plot twist is poor film-making. The first 15 minutes of the film is spent rapidly introducing people and creating these entirely forced relationships which are supposed to drive the firefight later. But the movie assumes that you're going to care about these boring people, let alone remember all their relationships.
The highlight of Free Fire is the acting. Sharlto Copely is perfect as Vernon, an over-the-top caricature of the 70s with a glorious head of hair, pornstache, and ridiculous collar to match. Armie Hammer, Jack Reynor, and Michael Smiley also shine in comedy, but Copely absolutely steals the show. Most of the film's laughter doesn't come from these characters, though, rather from the absurdity of the situation. The entire main cast gets shot at least once, and as a result they spend 70% of the film crawling around on the dirt floor, and it's pretty funny watching them either give up or continue trying to win in their weakened states.
The film's cinematography, direction, and writing are all fairly average (which is not unexpected considering the obviously low budget of the film), but each have some phenomenal moments. The cinematography in particular fails for most of the movie to give any indication as to where in the warehouse everyone is, but then some gloriously framed sweeping shots almost redeem it.
Free Fire is a movie at odds with itself. It tries to have its cake and eat it too, which of course is impossible. You can have a dialogue-heavy movie or an action movie but, as Free Fire stands testament too, you can't have both at the same time. While it's hardly awful, a few decent action sequences don't make up for a film in which very little happens, even if the movie wants you to think a whole lot more is happening.
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