JCVD (2008)

For some reason I went into this thinking it was a comedy. It totally wasn't! But still, it is quite good. In JCVD, Jean-Claude Van Damme plays himself: an aging action star, beloved in his native Belgium, but struggling financially due to a vicious custody battle and tax issues. He returns to his home country for some peace of mind, but still has to deal with lawyer payments in America. His cards have been cut off so he tries to access a bank account to wire the money. After snapping a photo with some fans on the street, he enters the local post office, only to become part of a major hostage situation with three ambitious and bickering thieves. At first we are only treated to an outsider's point of view: Jean-Claude is seen going inside, gunshots are heard, the police try to get in but the entry ways are closed off. They call the post office and Jean-Claude answers, telling them someone is injured.

The police chief and a medic enter the building, but the atmosphere is tense and confused, and for some reason Jean-Claude violently sends them away. There are some more calls made, and attempts to secure the one child hostage. Later the perspective flips and we learn that of course, Jean-Claude is not the mastermind of this plot, and merely a puppet. The criminals have physically forced him to pretend he is taking over the post office, in the hopes that they can get even more money as well as a clean getaway with him as their fall guy. Jean-Claude does his best to keep them calm to avoid any harm to the hostages. He sees a possible end to the madness in the obvious fandom and wannabe camaraderie of one of the criminals, but with an increasingly agitated atmosphere and the cops closing in, he'll have to tread carefully.

This is a great premise for a film- I love when movie stars take parodic or self-aware roles. Admittedly I have never seen a Jean-Claude Van Damme film. I kind of confused him with Steven Seagal, actually (which I felt ultra-sorry for when Van Damme loses a role to Seagal in JCVD. Heh). But he's really cool in this movie! He gives a very sympathetic, heartfelt performance that I wouldn't have expected from an action star. He is terse but intriguing, with a wonderfully expressive face. And it really is his movie, perhaps a little bit too much, in the sense that the other characters are barely developed. It's not a huge fault, but there was some potential for interesting side characters that sort of fell away pretty quickly after serving their purpose.

Visually the film is lovely. Everything is hushed and slightly greyed, giving it a look both grimy and dreamlike. I really like when filmmakers play around with color and tone. However, it felt a little out of place here- it didn't add anything to the atmosphere of the story, it just made everything feel a bit removed. Perhaps this was intentional, as the whole film is a mysterious blur between reality and fiction, so giving it a slightly surreal tint speaks to its ambiguous pseudo-realism.

JCVD is very enjoyable, and unexpectedly intense. It's a bit slow at parts, surprisingly funny at others, and overall an interesting story with a really cool premise. I dug it. It kind of makes me more curious about the similarly-themed Bruce Campbell comedy My Name is Bruce that came out last year. I had really wanted to see it (duh, Bruce Campbell!) but then read about it being weirdly racist and not particularly enjoyable. Have any of you guys seen it? Thoughts?

4/5

Wonderful, fourth-wall-breaking monologue near the end. A little rambling, but really engaging and touching.