Joel on Film

Shelter doesn’t represent too much of a stretch for star Jason Statham, he who enjoys the pummeling of bodies and crashing of cars, and as a thriller in its own right, the movie also has no new ideas. On the surface, there’s something to the idea of the actor playing a much quieter and more reflective action hero, and Statham is just fine here as Michael Mason, once a soldier in a paramilitary unit who left the agency after refusing to follow through on a job. In practice, though, there’s nothing at all thoughtful about the movie, which can only claim a slightly unique tone in the “something different” department.

That minor change is apparent right from the start, which finds Mason in seclusion and quietly watching over his neighbor and the man’s daughter Jessie (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) out of some unspoken sense of loyalty. Mason avoids technology of nearly any modern kind, as well as human interaction, speaking curtly to Jessie when she delivers some supplies and warning her off the idea of returning to visit. It’s clear that screenwriter Ward Parry believes that these quirks are genuine character traits and, to some degree, depth, but it quickly becomes clear that it’s basically a gimmick: Mason is supposed to be dead, and certain people must find out he’s not in a way that comes across as a major revelation.

As such, that certainly happens for the ultra-covert unit, represented here by actors Bill Nighy and Naomi Ackie as, respectively, the unit commander and a subordinate who has no idea what she’s walked into when Mason shows up on some video playback. Dastardly developments are in store when the unit, called the Black Kites, arrives on Mason’s property soon after a tragedy places Jessie in his care, and obviously, things won’t work out so well for those soldiers. There is a slight sense of creativity to the way Parry and director Ric Roman Waugh stage and execute the set pieces here, as each and every agent sent in Mason’s direction faces the consequences.

Then again, we’ve seen this all before, and that extends to the road-trip nature of the plot, which has Mason protecting Jessie as he transports her to a safer place. Why Mason himself can’t take her is a nagging sort of question, especially since the entire movie acts as a way for Mason—who has no one to call family, except a dog we probably shouldn’t discuss in this venue—to warm up to another human being for perhaps the first time in his life. Along the way, they stop off in various spots to regroup (a father-son pair being the most irresponsibly avoidable) or to raise the question once again about where Jessie might settle down (with, for instance, an old colleague of Mason’s, played by Daniel Mays, only to find out he has a pretty good reason not to be a candidate).

Mostly, though, the movie is an excuse for action set pieces, which provides Statham a variety of ways to pummel and punch and shoot his way through a number of scenarios involving bad guys. The main one here is a nameless operative, played by Bryan Vigier, whose training was much like that of Mason back in the day, meaning he’s also ruthless and methodical and as much of an expressionless cipher as the hero. One set piece, set inside a night club where the blaring music offers some cover, is fairly clever, but the others are all instantly forgettable and basically interchangeable, while the trajectory of the plot moves inexorably toward exactly the climax one expects of it from the start.

The movie neither intrigues nor excites when it leaves Mason to take inventory of the agency’s investigation of his whereabouts, as Ackie’s analyst tries to outwit her boss and Mason closes in on a confrontation with his past. Shelter almost refuses to do anything new with its tired plot, and it becomes exhausting in a way that has nothing to do with its action.

Rating: *½ (out of ****)