Over the past decades, we have had ample opportunity to observe that Keanu Reeves possesses the acting abilities of a Slavonian oak—yet also how that may not matter much if he lands the right director and a suitable script. When that happens, the results can be more than impressive, and thus Reeves has secured himself the status of a genuine Hollywood star who can draw audiences to cinemas and provide far more entertainment than many of his more talented, esteemed and famous colleagues. This tends to occur particularly when the roles are of the strong, silent types who speak little and act decisively—the kind you would want by your side if a night out at a club with shady reputation took a turn for the worse.
One such role, which in their time built the star careers of Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson, and which in recent years has been specialised in by Liam Neeson, is the titular protagonist of the action film John Wick—an enormously successful hit from 2014 that has since spawned two sequels and can be said to have largely defined Keanu Reeves’s career, at least as far as the 2010s are concerned.
The protagonist is a former New York hitman whose skill and success in carrying out the most complex and dangerous assignments were such that he could afford the rare privilege of retiring and enjoying a comfortable life. At the very beginning of the story, however, John Wick is not happy, having been deeply affected by the tragic death of his wife, whose memory is kept alive by her little dog. One evening, however, he crosses paths with a gang of thugs led by Iosef Tarasov (Alfie Allen), who, in their effort to get hold of his Ford Mustang at any cost, break into his house, beat him up, steal the car and kill the dog. This last act is the final straw that sets Wick on a vengeful hunt, using his old friends and connections from the criminal underworld.
His campaign will not be stopped even by the discovery that Iosef’s father is none other than Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist), the all-powerful boss of the Russian mafia who was once Wick’s main employer and to whose favour he owes his retired status. After attempts at a peaceful resolution fail, a bloody and spectacular conflict erupts between Tarasov and Wick. While Wick, like an unstoppable killing machine, attacks Tarasov’s men in search of Iosef, Viggo, in his effort to stop Wick, posts an astronomically high bounty on his head, turning the most efficient and ruthless hired killers in New York against him.
During production, the luckiest combination proved to be not only the decision to cast Reeves in the lead role—which seems tailor-made for him—but also that the directors chosen were former stuntmen Chad Stahelski and David Leitch (whose name was left out of the credits for procedural reasons). The two had worked closely with Reeves on The Matrix, until then the most successful of all Reeves’s films, and this, along with their extensive experience, is reflected in a whole series of exceptionally effective and gripping action scenes. These, especially in the first part of the film, never appear dull or monotonous, despite the fact that Reeves’s character, given his lethal skills, is predestined to emerge victorious from every encounter.
John Wick also benefits greatly from Derek Kolstad’s script, which was originally conceived for a much older actor but nonetheless works perfectly, largely thanks to its reliance on the legacy of the 1960s, above all spaghetti westerns and the classic gangster films of Jean-Pierre Melville. Kolstad not only created a memorable character who, despite his physical superiority, is emotionally vulnerable enough to be embraced as a protagonist, but also placed him in a fictional yet at times fascinating world. Its most interesting detail is the Hotel Continental, which served as inspiration for a much weaker film of similar premise and also as a template for a later miniseries.
The film is further enriched by a diverse and very well-deployed cast. This includes Alfie Allen, who clearly enjoys taking a break from playing the ill-fated Theon Greyjoy in Game of Thrones, but even more so the late Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist, who portrays the role of a Russian gangster boss completely free of any stereotypes, making it easy to forget similar performances where such roles were played by Rade Šerbedžija.
Although John Wick begins to buckle somewhat toward the end under the inevitable clichés and predictability of its bloody finale, it is perhaps not the best, but certainly one of the justifiably more successful action films of our time.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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