Cleaner Review: Daisy Ridley’s Spirited Performance Leads Martin Campbell’s Lacklustre Die Hard Clone
Enlisting Daisy Ridley to play a former soldier-turned-titular Cleaner and placing her in a Die Hard mould under the direction of Martin Campbell sounds like potentially thrilling cinematic fun. Besides, Ridley is no stranger to a physically demanding performance, given her prior stint wielding a lightsaber in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
But here lies the problem: Those who are eager to see Ridley in action will have to wait until the final 20 minutes or so before showcasing her special set of skills in martial arts and weaponry. She reportedly underwent intense physical training to prepare for her role. The result? She proves to be a convincing female action hero while displaying the same spunky charm seen in her Rey character in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
It helps that Campbell’s forte is put to good use, even when he’s only granted a US$25 million budget. He manages to give us some worthwhile action set pieces for the price given in the third act as Ridley’s MMA-style fighting style takes down the bad guys in a few swift and nifty moves. Frankly, I was expecting Cleaner is going to be an action-packed movie focusing on getting down to business minus the excess fats. The movie even clocks at under 100 minutes so the pace has got to be taut and propulsive.
How I wish that is the case as the story — credited to Matthew Orton, Simon Uttley and Paul Andrew Williams — spends a great deal of time either going through a series of expository-heavy scenarios or sidelining Daisy Ridley mostly out of the action stuck outside the windows of a building. So, the movie tries to get us rooted for Daisy Ridley’s character Joey Locke, whose life is a mess. A long, bad day, to be exact, beginning with her waking up so late for work and not having enough time to make breakfast.
Then, she has to deal with her notoriously troubled autistic brother Michael (Matthew Tuck), who got kicked out of his care facility, forcing her to bring him along to her workplace. Her supervisor isn’t pleased with her being late and as if her day doesn’t get any worse, here comes a group of masked eco-terrorists led by Marcus (Clive Owen) holding the people hostage as the company — Agnian Energy — is having a gala celebration. This happens around 20 minutes and Joey, who is still outside cleaning windows happens to witness the event unfold.
Just when I thought she was about to use her military skills to save the day, Campbell chooses to withhold those moments by opting for her character to either stay put on the aerial lift platform or dangle on a wire while trying to figure out how to break the window without causing too much attention.
This, in turn, puts her character at a great disadvantage, making it frustrating to watch her on the sideline. You see, part of the success of the first Die Hard lies in Bruce Willis’s John McClane often tries his best to improvise his situation no matter how trapped he finds himself into. Imagine his character would just sit around or barely do much while waiting for the right moment, I don’t think the movie ended up as iconic and memorable till this day.
Still, there are moments that Campbell manages to pull off including an unexpected twist revolving around one of the eco-terrorists that I didn’t see coming. It was a nice touch, which instantly reminds me of a certain action movie released back in the mid-1990s. Having Clive Owen play the leader of the eco-terrorists is a no-brainer choice, especially given the actor’s signature sneaky charm added to his antagonist role.
It’s a pity that Campbell botches the potential of turning his latest mid-budget action movie into something worthwhile. It’s the same deja vu experience previously seen in The Protégé and later, Dirty Angels, both of which benefited from Maggie Q and Eva Green’s engaging performances in their respective lead roles but ultimately hampered by lacklustre scripts.
