One Line Review: Beckett is a slow, tedious, and action-lacking action movie
Youtube Trailer Beckett
Starring: John David Washington, Alicia Vikander, Boyd Holbrook
Director: Ferdinando Cito
Release Date: 4 August 2021
Introduction
Beckett is a dramatic thriller directed by Ferdinando Cito Filomarino ( Antonia ), assistant director of the prestigious director Luca Guadagnino (Call me by your name ). A film that places us in Greece, to introduce us to the desperate flight of an American tourist, involved in a complex international conspiracy.
Plot Summary
Beckett is an American who is on vacation in Greece. After a serious traffic accident, he becomes involved in a dangerous political conspiracy. And he has to flee if he wants to save his life.
Chance capable of complicating everything
Beckett (John David Washington) is an American tourist who is spending his vacation in Greece, accompanied by his girlfriend April (Alicia Vikander). In some apparent days of rest and discovery, by ancient Greece, which will be cut short after a fatal accident. Overnight the anonymous and ordinary Beckett becomes the victim of terrible persecution. So without knowing very well what to face and with little help, good old Beckett will have to show his survival instinct.
This is the, a priori, ambitious premise of Beckett, the second film by Italian director Ferdinando Cito Filomarino. A film that is based on references of purely persecution cinema such as El fugitivo. With a protagonist totally removed from his environment, who is forced by circumstances to recycle. Since Beckett is a computer analyst forced to undertake an animal fight for his livelihood.
Fleeing through a burning Greece
Beckett is committed to filming the Greek country from the wild. The first part focused on the most rural Greece. With an overwhelming and terrifyingly inhospitable nature that welcomes Beckett’s desperate escape. A Beckett dwarfed by the immensity of a country that has nothing to do with the tourist image of other feature films. Being in this part when the director likes with some low-angle shots and visually attractive sequences. Highlighting a harrowing chase down a cliff of infinite fall, which has (for the one who writes) a certain aroma of the classic “With death on the heels. “
Until finally the film reaches the metropolis to turn its tone and get closer to the political thriller. With a totally divided Greece that is the victim of a fatal political polarization. What seems like a metaphor for the turbulent and discouraging times the world is experiencing.
No fast-paced action, no absorbing script
So despite all the ingredients, Beckett disappoints. For those who enjoy adrenaline, they will see, with few exceptions, a lot of calm and little verve with the camera. Something difficult to explain when they are facing an escape tape and fight for life. Although the interpreter John David Washington leaves the physical in practically every plane of the film.
And for those who prefer character stories, Beckett will end up disappointing with the complete lack of script twists. Not to mention how flat the characters are or how convoluted the political conspiracy is. An attempt to give a greater depth to a story that unfortunately will not go down in history.
Conclusion
In short, we are facing a failed tape. A film with an escape premise that could have led, at least, into a good entertainment product. But that has finally mutated into a soulless tape. With a too intricate rhythm and a not very charismatic protagonist, very far from the history of the genre like Harrison Ford or Bruce Willis.
In spite of everything, Beckett opens in the summer and perhaps it is the ideal period to give it a try. Counting as it has attractive locations, in a Greece symbol of the, sometimes, insane world in which we live.
