Ronin is a plotlest episodic borefest which
lurches inexplicably from one car chase/shootout to the next. The
plot, such as it is, is lifted directly from "Pulp
Fiction," and involves a MacGuffin suitcase which contains
something valuable and mysterious (but which we never know the
nature of). Also like "Pulp Fiction," the movie finds
some drama in an improvised medical procedure (here, removing a
bullet; in PF, shooting adrenaline into a junkie's heart).
The characters speak in the lazy solipicisms of
Eurpoean films, meant to say a lot without saying much at all.
But the dialogue doesn't say anything, even if you're determined
to read between the lines. The film also breaks out the dustiest,
mustiest, hoariest espionage movie cliche:
Spy Number One: "I seem to remember you.
Where do I know you from?"
Spy Number Two:"Vienna."
Spy Number One: "Ah, Vienna."
This old espionage standby -- two covert agents
reminiscing about a previous mission, identified only by the
glamorous city it occurred in, can be found in the
Schwartzenegger vehicle Predator (where the city was Tehran) and
a thousand other spyflicks.
The extent of character development is to show
that a character has good reflexes by showing him catching a
falling cup.
The opening scene is baffling. Characters mill
about in a small Parisian bar, shooting eachother meaningful
looks, going into the john, drinking beer. Throughout this scene
menacing musical "stingers" attempt to give tension to
the tedium, but we have no idea what is intended to be
suspenseful or dangerous or menacing. For example, DeNiro makes a
big production of placing his gun beneath some milkcrates before
he enters the bar. We have no idea why he does this; he's never
frisked and never has need to pick the gun up again later.
On the plus side are the film's three car
chases -- which do impart a feeling of velocity and danger -- and
the lead actress, who is one of the most beautiful women I've
ever seen. Her face is simply luscious, striking, bold, sad and
beautiful.
The film meanders from one chatfest to the
next, the lead characters speaking about "safehouses"
and other military/espionage terms of art, but you are never
convinced the characters (or the screenwriter) has any fucking
idea of what he's talking about.
The film borrows from other spy films. Most
prominently, it borrows from Mission Impossible. Once again, a
team of professionals romping about in a European capital,
tossing off the occassional jaded-spy quip. Jean Reno plays a
procurement specialist -- the exact role he played in Mission
Impossible! (At least in this film, he's not a heavy and doesn't
fly a chopper, too.) It also borrows from the James Bond flick
For Your Eyes Only (the mastermind badguy has an iceskating
protoge; in FYEO it was Lynn Holly Johnson, an Olympic silver
medialist, here it's Katarina Witt, another silver medalist, I
believe.) The man who played the head bad guy in Moonraker plays
a French mobster here. (I guess he's a mobster; it's never really
explained.)
All in all, the film is a boring letdown --
even if you weren't expecting much, as I wasn't -- and overstays
its not-so-warm welcome by at least forty five minutes.
Wait for video. You can turn it off at will,
make a sandwhich, flick to ESPN or HBO, then start watching again
when you regain your endurance.
Oh yeah: also on hand for the "fun"
in Ronin are Sean Bean, the main bad guy in Goldeneye, and
Johnathan Pryce, the main bad guy from Tomorrow Never Dies.
combined with 11978-79
