ReviewFilm review: Sean Penn flexes his muscles in The Gunman
In spite of its human rights background story, The Gunman unspools as little more than a by-the-numbers action thriller with characters who are racial stereotypes
In spite of its human rights background story and the presence of actor Sean Penn, The Gunman unspools as little more than a by-the-numbers action thriller.
There’s a batch of racial stereotypes, including a chirpy cockney (played by Ray Winstone) and a Latin lover (Javier Bardem), and all the usual plot reversals and revelations, but the action scenes are extremely well staged, even if the situations become more and more unlikely.
Penn plays Terrier, a mercenary posing as a bodyguard for a human rights organisation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. After Terrier assassinates a government minister, he’s forced to flee the country, leaving the love of his life, Annie (Jasmine Trinca), in the arms of his Spanish colleague Felix (Bardem).
Nine years later, Terrier is back in the Congo, working for an NGO to assuage the guilt he feels for causing political chaos there. When he’s attacked by paramilitary thugs, he seeks out his former colleagues – and Annie – to find out who’s trying to kill him.