Maybe Sean Penn wanted to grab for himself some of that sweet money Liam Neeson’s been collecting as a late-career action hero. Maybe he just wanted an excuse to show off, at age 54, a ridiculously chiseled physique. Whatever the case, with The Gunman, he’s made a sturdy little thriller.
Of course the politically outspoken Penn would have us believe it’s more than that. The screenplay applies a patina of importance to what eventually becomes a man-on-the-run/revenge flick. Protagonist Jim Terrier (Penn) begins as a gun-for-hire on a security team protecting a nongovernmental aid organization in the dangerous Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the first act he’s tasked with shooting a government minister who has threatened to disrupt the mining operations of a multinational corporation. Though he expresses no misgivings at the time (aside from the fact that he’ll have to leave behind his girlfriend), the movie soon jumps forward eight years to find him a man seeking penance for his sins.
He’s back in the Congo by then — this time working for a humanitarian organization that’s drilling water wells. When three guys with machetes show up to kill him, he’s forced to shift back into full-on Jason Bourne mode and flee to his home base in London to determine who it is that wants him dead.
His search leads him to his former colleague Felix (Javier Bardem), who’s now married to the woman Jim was forced to desert, Annie (Jasmine Trinca). Old feelings get in the way, of course, and the body count piles up via a series of nicely staged action set pieces.
As long as you can avoid rolling your eyes at the film’s tacked-on political message about how the West has done wrong by Africa (an undeniable fact), or Penn’s obvious desire to display his overdeveloped musculature at every opportunity, that’s enough for a satisfying diversion.
