3 DAY TO KILL
US/France, 2013, 117 minutes, Colour.
Kevin Costner, Amber Heard, Hallie Steinfeldt, Connie Nielsen.
Directed by Mc G.
If you have two hours to kill, you might enjoy watching three days to kill! In fact, there is an ambiguity in the title, with a father having three days to spend with his estranged daughter, and his CIA involvement in an assassination attempt.
On the whole, the film is serious in its portrait of an ageing CIA agent, discovering that he is terminally ill, and wanting out of his work in order to re-connect with his family. His assignment is very serious indeed: an arms dealer, his agent with a dirty bomb, his accountant and other associates. But then, the film also has a lot of humorous touches, especially in the agent’s trying to deal with and understand his daughter who is at school in an international college in Paris. He is also benign to an agent whom he tortures but also relies on for advice about daughters. Put the two ingredients together and stir and you come up with this film.
It has been directed with flourishes by Mc G who made two Charlie’s Angels films a decade ago. It is based on a story by Luc Besson, who has made some classics, like Subway but who has also provided stories for quite a lot of action films including the Transporter series and a film which plays on similar themes but much less successfully, The Family with Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer.
The agent, Ethan Renner, is played by a world-weary Kevin Costner, something he does quite well and quite convincingly. When we see him in action as an assassin, we realise that he considers it just as a job and his conscience is fixed solely on American loyalty and obeying CIA orders. He is shrewd, quick into action, but at this time he has terminal cancer, only three months to live. When his contact from the US, agent Vivi (Amber Heard) insists that he complete the mission he began in Belgrade, with all kinds of explosions and shootings in one of the main streets, in Paris where his estranged wife and daughter live.
Audience credulity is rather strained when we see the CIA agent in charge of the mission to kill the arms dealer. Initially prim and unremarkable in her interviews with the CIA bosses, she transforms into a combination of the vamp, femme fatale, and parody of female enemies in James Bond films. She is played by Amber Heard, far too young, it would seem, to have made such progress in the CIA ranks. However, she is not plagued by any moral scruples and insists on Renner completing his work.
On the family side there is Connie Nielsen as his wife, who still loves him despite his five-year absence and his daughter, Hallie Steinfeldt, who is that the precocious stage, falling for a senior student at school, thinking that her hair do going awry is an apocalyptic disaster.
The ending relies on an enormous coincidence, but it gets the characters together in the one place, serves as an occasion for mayhem, and, with the help of a mysterious experimental drug provided by his vamp superior, Renner may actually get some extra time with his family.
Eye-catching while on the screen, but one that will fairly quickly fall out of the memory.
1. A blend of action and comedy? How successful in both areas?
2. The writer, Luc Besson and his action dramas? The director, Mc G and his style and flourishes?
3. The meaning of the title, for Renner to achieve his mission, for Renner to achieve some kind of reconciliation with his daughter?
4. The opening, Serbia, desperate situation, international criminals, arms deals, the CIA? The agents in the hotel, the maid? The target criminals? The explosions? The getaway? When and his shooting The Albino, his wounded leg and limp?
5. Kevin Costner as Renner, his age, experience, his wife and daughter, absent for five years, his sense of duty, commitment to the US? His skills as an agent? As a ruthless killer? His presence in Serbia, part success, part failure?
6. Becoming aware of his illness, blackouts, blurred vision, difficulties for his pursuits? His visit to the doctor, the diagnosis, the limited time? His decision to see his family again? His family in Paris, his wife and her work? Going back to Paris?
7. The introduction to the CIA, Washington, the mousey secretarial look of the agent, taking on the mission, the absolute transformation, glamour, the look of a vamp, the costumes, hairstyle, manner? Her ruthlessness? The credibility of being a spy at this stage of career? The meetings with Renner, with demands, his reaction to her? The issue of the medication, specialist, but her holding it over Renner for him to complete his assignment?
8. The villains, international, The Wolf, The Albino, the connections, the disguises, moving around group, in Paris? The buildup to the final pursuit, the chases, deaths?
9. Renner, meeting his wife, her attitude towards her husband, still loving him, but wary, the five-year absence? Going away for her work, returning? His daughter, at the International School, age, her boyfriend and response to him, her self-centredness, her phone, the ring tone, in times of suspense, the drama about her hairstyle? Attitude towards a father, the days with him, not wanting it, taken, his rescue, the sexual threats, the reconciliation?
10. Vivi stepping in, her demands, threats, power over Renner, an alternate image of the CIA agent?
11. Renner, the effects of the drug, his illness, the difficulties in his pursuing the enemies?
12. Going back to his apartment, the squatters, finding his guns, his discussions with them, the pregnancy, the birth of the child, the man and his support,
the other members of the family? His allowing them to stay?
13. Renner and the Italian accountant, taking him, torture, yet the discussions about recipes and phoning through and the discussions about bringing up families? The chauffuer, the accountant and The Wolf?
14. The final coincidence, bringing everybody together, dramatic denouement?
15. An entertaining time-passer?
