Theatrical Review: REPO MEN
Rating: 5/10
Writers: Eric Garcia (book: “The Repossession Mambo”), Eric Garcia & Garrett Lerner (screenplay)
Director: Miguel Sapochnik
Cast: Jude Law, Forest Whitaker, Liev Schreiber, Alice Braga
Studio: Universal Pictures
REPO MEN stars Jude Law as Remy, a…yep, you guessed it…repo man! But he’s not your average, run-of-the-mill repossession specialist. Fall behind on your car payments and a portly gentlemen will come reclaim your automobile. Fall behind on your heart payments and a stout fellow like Remy will cut it right out of your chest.
This here is the future, where we can live longer lives due to the nifty fact that we can replace any part of our body with a sleek, artificial organ paid in full by a hefty credit line. But what happens when that credit runs out and one can’t pay for their new liver or their new ticker? Let’s just say The Union, the company supplying this credit and these creations, doesn’t quite enact the technique of harassing you with annoying phone calls. No, their methods of reclaiming their property are a bit more barbaric than that.
Maybe a bit too barbaric for Remy, as he begins to rethink his particular career choices while the clock on his own debt, like his artificial heart, ticks faster and faster as it nears the point of past due. This doesn’t sit too well with his former partner, and childhood bully/friend, Jake (Forest Whitaker) or the head of The Union (Liev Schreiber) who decide the guy’s heart just isn’t in it anymore. Remy soon finds himself as the mouse where he was once the cat as he, along with a woman named Beth (Alice Braga) who’s made of almost completely artificial parts, must evade being captured and cut open by his former friends turned foes. But, while they may try to take his heart, they’ll never take his brain.
THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!
Instead, they’ll just kind of bore yours.
It’s apparent within the first few moments of REPO MEN that it is under heavy influence of BLADE RUNNER. And while there are plenty of blades and a fair amount of running in the film, REPO MEN is not quite the techno sci-fi noir it would hope to be. One could derive this kind of hope from the film’s undeniably stellar cast, consisting of a Golden Globe nominee, an Oscar nominee, and an Oscar winner. Which raises the question, what are those guys doing in this film in the first place?
I would account this to the fact that the script, based on a novel from writer Eric Garcia, is admitably clever and observant in its presentation of this not-so-far-off future of over-spending and under-paying. In other words, the problems of our world and the problems of this world (debt, healthcare, etc.) are highly relatable. Furthermore, they’re downright scary to conceptualize them as becoming a reality. But, while the ideas behind this proposed future may be executed well (and look sleek to boot), the film adaptation it is utilized within is not.
The film wastes its viable talent and capable story line on two-bit action sequences and predictable moments of suspense mixed with doldrum moments of exposition, only to wrap up in the all too cliche surprise ending that you learn to avoid your first year of film school. Not to mention the awkward, not-so-subtle-symbolic love scene in the “climax” of the film in which Remy must reclaim all of Beth’s organs by scanning them into the system so that her debt is erased. But how can he do this if her organs are inside her? Why, by inserting a phallic-shaped scanner into various parts of her body that he has sliced open as she moans out in what could be debated as orgasmic pain. If it sounds gross, that’s because it is. Add in the fact that they are half-way making love during the scene anyway, so you can pretty much just wave goodbye to symbolism all together. I’m sure the lines between sex and violence have been blurred more in other film’s prior to this, I just can’t think of any better example than REPO MEN at this moment.
In the end, REPO MEN made me want to repossess the time I spent watching it. Despite its talented cast and potential to become a interesting, socially conscious sci-fil film, it ended up just crossing its heart and hoping to die a quick death as it will likely be forgotten soon after its release.
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