1/2

This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here.

Repo Men is not a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination. But it never fails to be an interesting and engaging one. Off-putting and ridiculous one moment, highly satirical and frenzied the next, Repo Men is one of those rare films that is both a trick and treat.

Jude Law and Forest Whitaker play Remy and Jake, two lifelong best friends who work for The Union, a near-future conglomerate that runs America after the collapse of the government. Remy and Jake spend their days tracking down the recipients of synthetic organ transplants who’ve fallen behind on their payments, and retrieving them at the edge of a scalpel. (Hey scientific geniuses, how about installing tracking devices in your products? It would make for a much shorter, more boring movie, but it would certainly help make your employees’ jobs a lot easier!)

It’s an occupation Remy has a change of heart about (wink!) after an on-the-job accident forces him to trade his real-life ticker for a mechanical version he can’t possibly afford. It isn’t long before the hunter becomes the hunted, and as Union men (including his unscrupulous boss Liev Schrieber) come out of the woodwork, Remy joins forces with a beautiful fugitive (Alice Braga) in search of a way out, trying desperately to avoid the confrontation with Jake he knows must come.

In many ways, Repo Men is yet another dystopian sci-fi future, cobbling together bits and pieces of Blade Runner, Minority Report and Logan’s Run. It starts off like second-rate Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, RoboCop, Starship Troopers), brimming with quirky, absurdist, macabre moments that are actually amplified as the film progresses. The longer Repo Men goes, the weirder and truthfully better it gets. At first, the film is too contemporary bound, with only a thin veneer of futurism. But as the running time increases, so does the gloriously indulgent excess.

Repo Men throws caution to the wind and decides, if it is going to crash and burn, at least it will do so while swinging for the cinematic outfield. The film never commits the sin of playing it safe. It is astonishingly violent and bloody, ending with a penultimate scene that will have surgery fetishists, if such people exist, vibrating with pleasure. And while you can see the final seconds of the film coming (if you’re paying attention), it works effectively nonetheless, and explains much of the earlier outrageousness you might have been tempted to disparage.

As off-bubble as it sounds, Repo Men might also have something to say about the state of the world today. The housing crisis is reflected nicely in repossessed organs, and a malfunctioning healthcare industry (particularly the insurance element) certainly falls squarely beneath the movie’s crosshairs. Just don’t tell Glenn Beck—he’ll probably see gutted bodies as a metaphor for Obamacare.

It’s Repo Men — plural — and both Law and Whitaker complement and play off each other in ways little anticipated. Whitaker, not typically an actor I enjoy, is both funny and passionate, adding the sort of color lacking in Law’s stalwart but idiosyncratic performance, showing flashes of his early work like Gigalo Joe in A.I. or Harlen Maguire in Road to Perdition.

Repo Men is the first feature film from Miguel Sapochnik, and he shows the sort of arresting creativity that makes you genuinely interested to see what he’ll take up next. From some creative camera play to a peculiar, eclectic soundtrack, you may not like Sapochnik’s first film out of the gate, but you certainly won’t forget it.

© Copyright 2010 Brandon Fibbs. All rights reserved.

Cast: Jude Law, Forest Whitaker, Liev Schrieber, Alice Braga
Director: Miguel Sapochnik
Rated R for strong bloody violence, grisly images, language and some sexuality/nudity.
Runtime: 111 minutes