Review: JCVD

JCVD

OPENING: 11/07/2008

STUDIO: Peace Arch Entertainment

TRAILER: Trailer

ACCOMPLICES: Official Site

The Charge
Being Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Opening Statement
Jean-Claude Van Damme: Martial artist, international action star, recovering cocaine user, recently divorced again. Locked in a bitter custody battle with his latest ex-wife, things go from bad to worse for Belgium’s best-known non-beer export, when his lawyers inform him his check has bounced. A hostage situation develops after a botched hold-up at the post office and it’s Van Damme on the phone demanding $6 million.

Facts of the Case
Art mirrors real life in this satirical action-comedy from France in which Jean-Claude Van Damme plays a famous action star named Jean-Claude Van Damme. He is past his prime years and his agent can’t find him anything better than another lousy, low-budget action flick. Even for those crumbs he’s competing with other fading action icons like Steven Seagal. But the fight that matters to him most is the custody battle for his daughter. A big wound is inflicted when she tells a judge that her classmates make fun of her and she finds her father’s movies embarrassing.

Returning to his hometown of Brussels, Belgium a jetlagged Van Damme makes a stop at the post office to secure some funds for his lawyers. He soon discovers that he’s walked in on a hold-up and is forced to join the hostages. From the street, during a chaotic scene when shots are fired and the gunmen lock down the building, it looks like a desperate Van Damme is behind the caper. It doesn’t take long before a media storm develops outside. The police put pressure on Van Damme, whom the hostage-takers have forced to pretend to be their ring leader. Meanwhile, fans have assembled behind the barricades to cheer on their idol. They’re enjoying the show despite the likelihood that their town’s favorite son is on the wrong side of the law. As the gunmen gradually lose their patience, an unemployed actor must decide if he can be the hero in a situation with no second takes.

The Evidence
Here is Van Damme as we’ve never seen him before: a man slowed down by age, worn down by regret and reduced to being an ordinary guy. Sure, he’s playing himself, or at least an interpretation of himself, but the version of Jean-Claude presented here seems so uncannily real. It would have been easy to portray the character behind the shell of a pompous celebrity, but with that ego stripped away we have a Jean-Claude with his weaknesses and insecurities bared.

Consider a moment when Jean-Claude first enters the post office. He’s unaware that the building has been taken over and the clerk is just trying to get rid of him as instructed by the robbers. Jean-Claude is desperate to get his money and he won’t be turned away. But this isn’t one of his movies where he can use his strength to achieve his goal. He tries to reason with the clerk but that gets him nowhere so he gets mad and then he practically begs for the clerk’s cooperation. Seeing this powerful man reduced to such an ordinary state just shatters the action star image he’s built up before this.

If that scene takes away Van Damme’s physical prominence, a later scene leaves him psychologically naked. In an extended meta-cinematic moment, and the boldest move of the movie, Van Damme delivers a soliloquy directly to the camera. It is during this scene that the line between reality and fiction is at its fuzziest. Van Damme is either channeling a truth deep within or he’s doing a remarkable job of staying in character. While watching it I wasn’t entirely sure which Jean-Claude, the actor or the character, I was witnessing (maybe a bit of both at different times). Does the scene go too far in trying to achieve its final emotional note? After it was done, there were a few isolated pockets of applause in the sold-out screening I attended. I couldn’t tell if it was ironic.

Fans of old-school Van Damme, don’t despair. The star is not reduced to an overly-sensitive girly-man. He’s still got it, and he’s allowed to use. Let’s be honest, we all want to see him kick some bank-robbing butt. However, action fans will have to be patient as there’s less high-kicking excitement than expected. Still, the fantasy of Van Damme laying down the law is pretty satisfying despite the brevity of those scenes. At the request of one of the captors, he even performs one of his signature moves — not the splits, sadly.

Closing Statement
Director Mabrouk El Mechri has fashioned an engaging portrait of the aging action star as an ordinary man with regrets. There’s also plenty of humor to be had from the reactions of the locals to the presence of the town celebrity. Unfortunately the action is frustrated by a flashback narrative structure that repeatedly diffuses the tension of the hostage situation. Those flashback scenes are valuable but the way they are incorporated interrupts and delays the story in the present.

Nonetheless, the movie succeeds because of Van Damme’s performance. Finally, he’s allowed to show his acting chops by playing a character who is not invincible. It doesn’t hurt that he’s got a sense of humor about himself. This is Van Damme at his most introspective and vulnerable — and perhaps most likeable too.

The Verdict
7/10

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