What time did you read this review? If an interrogator, tomorrow, buttonholed you with this question, you might reply, “While having lunch. Two-ish, maybe?” But a Hollywood thriller has little use for such waffling. Daniel Espinosa's Safe House informs us that the events under consideration kicked off, on a Thursday, at 1:53 p.m., and when, the next morning, Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) and Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) escaped from would-be assassins, it was 8:17 a.m.
What use does this specificity serve? Perhaps as a reminder that, in the spying business, every second counts, every minute you live is a gift from the heavens. It is hell, however, that trails Weston, the keeper of a safe house in Cape Town, as he attempts to prevent Frost, an information trader wanted for espionage in four continents, from getting murdered. Alfred Hitchcock showed us, in Torn Curtain , how difficult it is to kill someone. Espinosa, here, is out to prove the opposite: how difficult it can be to keep someone alive.
Snarling men with guns are after Frost because he possesses a microchip with vital data. Will Weston foil their plans? Is Frost really the bad guy we are presented with? The answers are a nail-biter only if you've never seen a spy thriller (or, for that matter, a latter-day Denzel Washington movie). The relationship between the stars is a pastiche of familiar constructs — Weston, the rookie, lucking into a training day with Frost, receiving wisdom both professional and personal; the younger Weston, against all odds, earning Frost's grudging admiration; the masculine Frost squaring off with the feminine Weston, who is referred to as a “housekeeper.”
But the other tropes are equally battle-weary. (There's treachery in high places. Who could have guessed?) What keeps us watching, besides the non-stop action, is the top-drawer cast (including Brendan Gleeson, Sam Shepard and Vera Farmiga, who bolster their template-moulded parts with undeserving dignity). Safe House , finally, is a sturdy endorsement of well-honed Hollywood professionalism. It could have been better, but at least it isn't worse.
Safe House
Genre: Action-thriller
Director: Daniel Espinosa
Cast: Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Vera Farmiga
Storyline: The keeper of a safe house has to ensure the survival of a criminal
Bottomline: Routine stuff, but watchable nonetheless
