NOBODY (2021)
DIRECTED BY ILYA NAISHULLER
Action, aleksei-serebryakov, bob-odenkirk, christopher-lloyd, connie-nielsen, derek-kolstad, Drama, ilya-naishuller, rza
The career trajectory of Bob Odenkirk is something to be studied — from Mr. Show to Breaking Bad to this crazy nonsense. I’ve seen this movie twice and I still can’t totally decide if I like it. It’s very fun, I like the action a lot, but the narrative fell flat and annoyed me both times. But, before I go too deep:
THE PLOT
Hutch Mansell (Odenkirk) is living the world’s most aggressively boring life when we meet him in a montage of monotony: breakfast, missing the garbage truck, bus to work, office, repeat — the days blending together with sharp cuts increasing in speed, barreling toward what, we aren’t sure. He’s married to a real estate agent (Connie Nielsen), a successful one based on her bus stop ads, and has two kids, including a teenage son who thinks his dad is a loser. Standard stuff. He is, as he puts it, “nobody.”
The only hint at anything out of the ordinary is the fact that he talks to his brother Harry (RZA), who seems to be in hiding, through a concealed communication device.
In time we learn that, of course, Hutch isn’t actually nobody. He’s a retired government assassin, a guy they sent in to “audit” targets they wanted completely erased. Years ago, he traded that life for quiet and a family, and he’s so committed to his new role that he even refuses to fight back when two burglars break into his home. Suddenly his entire world — wife, son, neighbors — sees him as weak. The truth is he held back because he saw the robbers’ gun was unloaded. But the bigger truth is that part of him is itching for his old life.
The facade really cracks on one of his bus rides. A group of drunken, sleazy thugs start harassing a young woman, and Hutch snaps, smashing his way through the entire gang in a very visceral fight scene (have I mentioned this movie was written by Derek Kolstad, the guy who wrote John Wick?). The sequence is creative but gory.
Unluckily for Hutch, one of the thugs turns out to be the brother of Yulian (Aleksei Serebryakov), a Russian crime lord whose favorite hobbies are karaoke, violence, and guarding the mob’s obshchak. From there, the movie transforms into a pretty predictable action flick: Hutch fights hoards of Russian mobsters after shipping his family off to safety, gets out of situations you never think he’ll survive, and eventually turns his workplace into a Rambo-style attack lair where he fends off his assailants in a brutal climactic fight scene.
Booby traps, tripwires, nail bombs, and so many, many guns fly across the screen until only Hutch and Yulian are left. The final kill, Hutch using a Claymore mine strapped to bulletproof glass, is the right kind of ridiculous for the plot. But then the movie just ends.
Hutch’s dad and brother, who showed up guns a-blazin’ for the battle scenes, leave when the action ends to avoid police custody. Hutch gets arrested and subsequently released after the cops receive a call from the powers that be, presumably informing them of who they’re dealing with.
We get a quick flash-forward that shows Hutch and his wife buying a new home, and roll credits. We never learn why Harry is in hiding, how much Hutch’s wife knows about his past, whether he’s going back to his old ways, or really anything else. The movie ends more like a TV show season finale, a cliffhanger to keep us guessing at a sequel.
THE ACTORS
This is Odenkirk’s project, and he made the right choices. He looks like he could be your neighbor, but he trained with a stunt coordinator for two years to make the fight choreography work and you can see the commitment.
I’m a gigantic fan of Christopher Lloyd as David, Hutch’s dad, a former FBI agent who defends himself admirably throughout the movie.
RZA is wasted. He’s a voice on the radio, then appears in the final sequence for about five minutes of gunfire before disappearing again. His backstory is hinted at but never delivered, and unfortunately it feels like they couldn’t get him to commit to as many shooting days as they needed to flesh out the whole narrative. It just feels like something is missing.
Nielsen is just here to make Hutch’s “home life” thing more believable, but she could have been played by anyone else with no impact on the movie.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Nobody is a strange movie. The first act borders on boring before it shape-shifts into a brutal action flick; it’s fun but not satisfying. It’s the perfect movie for a random weekday night, escapism you can enjoy in the moment and not take it with you to the morning.
this movie is good-ish (but mostly because bob odenkirk makes it so).
My rating: 2.5/5