Keanu Reeves has had a strange career path. After finding success as one half of Bill and Ted and going on zany adventures through time, Reeves branched out into action movies with Point Break and Speed in the early ’90s, and found the role of a lifetime as “Neo” in The Matrix trilogy. But since then, Reeves’ roles has been more miss than hit and a once promising career was slowly and painfully going by the way side.
But now all that has changed with the release of John Wick. Finally, Keanu Reeves is in a role that showcases his talents (as limited as they are) and the end result is a damn-near perfect action film with gratuitous violence, a deep mythology in the subject matter, and some seriously good directing from Chad Stahelski, who curiously enough was once Reeves’ stunt double.
John Wick is the story of a legendary hit man (Reeves) who found love five years ago with Helen (Bridget Moynahan), and was able to leave the business–with a few conditions. But as luck would have it, Helen got sick and died, and before she passed, she left John a dog to look after to help him grieve and to give him something to love. Wick begins to develop a bond with the pup, using it to heal his broken heart until a group of Russian thugs led by Iosef Tarasov (Game of Thrones‘ Alfie Allen) breaks into Wick’s home to take his car and kill the poor beagle pup. This act forces John Wick back into the business of killing as he seeks revenge not only on Iosef, but anyone else that stands in his way, including Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist), Iosef’s father and John’s one-time employer.
The elder Tarasov counters Wick’s return by placing a large bounty on his head and forcing all of the killers-for-hire in the city to descend on the grieving widower. The results are exactly what you would expect.
The cast is rounded out by Willem Dafoe as Marcus, John’s old friend, and Adrianne Palicki as the deliciously deadly Ms. Perkins. Lance Reddick, Dean Winters (“Mayhem” from the Allstate commercials), Ian McShane, and John Leguizamo all pop up to help or hinder John’s quest for revenge.
Stahelski’s direction and the script by Derek Kolstad gives Reeves plenty of opportunities to kill folks, and only speak when he needs to. And it works. Keanu Reeves has never been the strongest actor in terms of delivering lines, but as John Wick, he gets to shine in ways I’ve never seen. I found myself not only rooting for him, but I was genuinely sad when the movie was over. I wanted more. John Wick is that kind of character. So over the top and stylish in what he does, even if what he does isn’t very nice. The music used in the film (and the score) is perfect. Tyler Bates, who has worked with Marilyn Manson, gives just enough industrial/metal fusion to help set the tone, especially in the high-paced scenes when John is battling scores of hired killers.
The best parts of John Wick are derived in the existential. Wick is a hollow man, having just lost his true love. We see that. We feel that. The dog was meant to be his release, but when he lost that, Wick chooses to grieve in the one way he knows how: by killing people. It was a subtle touch in a script meant to be fast-paced and violent, and that’s why John Wick works so well. It’s not often that action films about assassins get this many layers of subtext. Kudos to Kolstad’s script and Stahelski’s sublime direction.
John Wick is the kind of movie that could jump start a career, much like Pulp Fiction put John Travolta back on the map in 1994. Keanu Reeves is perfect for this role, and any subsequent sequels that may come from it. Even if John Wick fails at the box office, which would be a damn shame, this is the kind of film that will find a new life on DVD and beyond. It’s not a cult film. It’s a bad ass action film that stars a man that some consider box office death. And that is too bad. Give John Wick a chance, and you will see what I mean.
John Wick is rated R.
