A Working Man Review: A Visceral but Clunky Jason Statham’s 80s-style Action Thriller

David Ayer and Jason Statham reunite in A Working Man, and like their previous collaboration in The Beekeeper, this is another action thriller moulded from the same template. The template in question would revolve around a tough guy (that’s Statham), who used to be an ex-highly specialised role in the military occupation and has since retired to settle into a normal, blue-collar job. Bad things happen, which forces the protagonist to revert to his old killing ways.

Whereas The Beekeeper is about Statham’s titular role on his quest for John Wick-style vengeance, A Working Man sees Statham go for the Liam Neeson-like Taken route, albeit in an 80s-style beat/shoot ’em up action-thriller vibe. Except it’s not his own character’s daughter (Isla Gie), who got kidnapped, but rather his boss’s (Michael Peña’s Joe Garcia) beloved child, Jenny (Arianna Rivas), after a night party at the bar went wrong. Statham, who plays Levon Cade, has been enjoying his peaceful time as a construction worker. His boss, along with his wife (Noemi Gonzalez) and their daughter, treats Levon like family.

When Jenny is missing, the Garcias trust that Levon’s expertise, which he left behind a long time ago, can help locate their daughter. Co-written by Ayer and Sylvester Stallone, the story leaves no cliché unturned as it’s all familiar stuff: Levon initially hesitates because he doesn’t want to go back to his former self, but eventually agrees and promises to bring back their daughter.

From there, his solo mission leads him to discovering that it has something to do with the Russian mafia and local bikers (among them played by Chidi Ajufo as Dutch) involved in a human trafficking and sex trade led by Dimi (a sleazy Maximilian Osinski). Ayer could have gone for a lean action thriller, but like The Beekeeper, he feels the need to throw in some extra fats. I understand this movie is adapted from Chuck Dixon’s 2014 novel Levon’s Trade, and for the record, I didn’t read the book. But judging solely from the movie’s perspective, it’s unnecessarily clunky with padded-out moments, which often dilute the momentum, resulting in a weary two-hour runtime.

As usual, Jason Statham brings the same signature stoicism that you either love or hate. And yet, it’s hard to deny he’s good at what he does: playing a brooding tough character who possesses a special set of skills while taking down plenty of bad guys.

The action is both gritty and brutal as Statham’s Levon does everything from using a waterboarding technique to extract information to drowning a tied-to-a-chair Russian mobster (Jason Flemyng) down the pool and at one point, does something to one of the antagonists using a knife. Well, let’s just say it’s the most graphically violent scene in the movie.

But at times, the movie is making me frustrated over some of the action sequences looking visually incomprehensible or choppily edited due to Ayer’s penchant for setting his scenes in the dark or dimly lit locations. I also can’t help but wonder about the missed opportunity that Ayer could have done to raise the stakes by putting some of the people in harm’s way, particularly those whom Levon cared for.

As for the rest of the cast, Arianna Rivas holds out on her own in her spunky supporting turn as Jenny, despite spending the bulk of her screentime being held captive inside a room. Michael Peña is mostly relegated to a token worried-father role, while David Harbour made the best use of his limited appearance playing Levon’s best friend and a former soldier, Gunny Lefferty, who used to serve in the military together before an incident in the past caused his blindness. Both Statham and Harbour even share excellent buddy chemistry that serves as one of the highlights in the movie’s otherwise cumbersome effort.

Some of the shortcomings aside, it’s worth noting that A Working Man is the first part of Chuck Dixon’s Levon Cade series, which has so far released a total of 11 books. For now, the movie gets off to a decent, though uneven beginning for a franchise starter and if there’s a sequel in the pipeline — depending on the first movie’s box-office result, of course — here’s hoping it improves for the next round.