Movie Review: POV Action Film “Hardcore Henry”
“Hardcore Henry,” the latest movie from STX Entertainment and director Ilya Naishuller, attempts to take moviegoers deeper into the film experience than ever before. The action is shot first-person shooter video game style with the hands and feet of the main character, essentially the filmgoer, sometimes coming into view. Everything the main character sees or does is seen by the audience as its own action and/or experience. It’s an unusual approach with mixed results. The film credits three cinematographers, one editor and an army of visual effects artists. All of which combine to make for an immersive experience from the opening moments to the brutal finale.
As you see in the trailer, film opens in a lab. Laying on a table, unable to move or speak, the camera, you, looks around to see you a woman. You are “Henry,” explains Estelle (played by Haley Bennett, channeling classic film noir femme fatales) who removes the restraints keeping you strapped to a table. You’ve lost your memory but apparently this woman, your wife, is going to help you regain it. You are part of an experiment that has made you half man/half robot. As Estelle explains this and assembles you, the bad guys show up and an over-the-top action scene ensues in which Estelle is kidnapped. Thus begins Henry’s quest to get her back and find out who he is.
Hardcore Henry comes from director Ilya Naishuller, who went viral in 2013 with his first-shooter ultra-violent music video for Biting Elbows track “Bad Motherf*cker.” That short is the seed from whence Hardcore Henry grew. Told from the viewer’s perspective, “Bad Motherf*cker” pits the titular character against a bevy of bad guys that he dispatches in increasingly violent ways. Now make that 90 minutes and you’ve got Hardcore Henry.
In Hardcore Henry, Henry meets Jimmy, played by the talented Sharlto Copley in various guises. Copley carries the movie in several ways: providing comic relief, providing the audience valuable exposition, and generally filling in the emotional cracks. Copley comes close to making up for what is lacking by having the lead character be unable to speak or be seen. Jimmy is like Horatio if he did all the talking for Hamlet.
I’ll leave the rest for you to discover but it’s safe to say the film follows a familiar action movie pattern throughout. As Henry progresses in his mission by way of multiple side missions, exposition is parceled out to him by Jimmy. This is generally followed by another intense action scene. Though, I wasn’t exactly expecting Hamlet from an action movie script and the dialogue was certainly fine, it felt a bit like a video game script.
In the acting department, Copley impressed throughout and kept my interest in the story. He even managed to pull a bit of Peter Sellers out of his performance in several instances. Danila Kozlovsky is an odd but effective mix of douchey and creepy as Akan, the randomly supernatural villain pursuing Henry.
Immersive film is a growing genre. Birdman and its always moving, never cutting away style hhad an immersive feel to it as did parts of The Revenant. But this is something different. What director Naishuller and crew have pulled off is an interesting direction for movies. But I wonder how much the audience can take?
At the screening I attended, I perhaps sat a bit close, ten rows back from the screen and slightly raised. Thought I don’t get motion sick, I certainly felt that way by about midway through the 90 briskly-paced minutes of Hardcore Henry. After awhile, I just closed my eyes and waited for it to be over. I’m an action movie fan but the tight field of the POV made me sick to my stomach and gave me a headache. I’ve heard people trying out Virtual Reality headsets have the same issue after prolonged use. Again, maybe I sat too close. But it seems to me that’s a problem even greater than the somewhat emotional disconnect I felt not being able to see the main character’s face.
First-person shooter fans and action film fans will tap right into what Hardcore Henry is serving up. The POV film is certainly something to be experienced and explored. If you love action movies, give it a try.
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