The Foreigner (2017)

"The Foreigner" is one of the few movies seen since quite a while that hides more than what's shown in the trailer. And that's good... Another good thing is Jackie Chan's presence in a western production that's not a comedy. Otherwise said, you have the opportunity to also see the other face of the actor, who besides the remake of "Karate Kid", didn't really have any drama parts in movies made outside Hong Kong.

The movie is an adaptation of a thriller novel. We have an Asian immigrant, owner of a small London restaurant, whose daughter is killed in a bomb attack set up by a new faction of IRA that breaches the non-aggression agreement with the British government. Our man is not pleased with the answer of authorities who need more time to find the perpetrators, and decides to take the matter in his own hands. That implies traveling to Belfast and contacting the local deputy PM (Pierce Brosnan) an ex-IRA member, who doesn't seem to know much. But "the Chinaman" wants names. From here onward there are two action lines splitting and intersecting again repeatedly until the end. On one side we have a revenge story, where a Chinese in his '60s goes against the whole IRA (let's say that the exotic side of the situation and the way the action's built compensates the Special Forces background cliche). On the other side we have a political thriller with enough threads bound together (that's the surprise part, so let's not detail it).

The production quality is good. Besides the two parts excellently played by Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan one thing to notice is the editing, especially the audio one, which is well backed up also by surprisingly appropriate score given how minimalist is the composition. As a final note, the revenge story, which is as always catchy given the niche, it's much more diffuse and non-violent I'd say compared to what you might think, surprisingly even more than the other story line. Which again, it's something good :)...

Rating: 4 out of 5