Hummingbird
Director: Steven Knight
Actors: Jason Statham, Senem Temiz, Vicky Mcclure
Release Date: Monday 30th November -0001
Genre(s): Action, Thriller
Running time: 100 minutes
Writer/director Steven Knight has successfully dealt with the grittier side of life in modern England before with the likes of Dirty Pretty Things and Eastern Promises, but unfortunately he doesn't succeed in melding together this down'n'dirty tale with the kick-ass action we've all come to expect from a Jason Statham movie.
Statham plays Joey, a homeless vet living in London, on the run after abandoning his post in the military. While also evading debt collectors who are looking for the rent owed to them for the cardboard box he has been living out of, Joey breaks into the swanky pad of a gay photographer. Discovering that the place will be vacant for a few months, Joey poses as the photographer's boyfriend, and uses the time and space to rebuild his life. While trying to earn money to give to his ex and their daughter, as well as the nun who looked after him while he was down on his luck, Joey's talents with his fists and feet don't go unnoticed, and before long he's been hired as the driver/bodyguard of a local Asian gangster.
It's nice to see Statham's acting abilities pushed out a bit, and there certainly is evidence here that given the right material he could turn in a very good performance. Unfortunately, this is not the right material. The tone and message of the movie are all over the place, with Joey fighting against organised crime one minute, and then a part of it the next. Plus his relationship with Sister Cristina (Agata Buzek) comes across as really, really creepy, with him seemingly using her crisis with her own religious beliefs as an opportunity to get her into bed.
The action scenes, when they do come, are visceral and violent, but are far too short and far too few. In fact their inclusion only jars the tone of the movie even further, as this is for the most part a completely joyless movie, and the fisticuffs are the only glimmer of fun to be had.
An interesting failure, but a failure nonetheless.
