Review: J.C.V.D.

Jean-Claude Van Damme stands trial in J.C.V.D.

You can make all the comparisons to Dog Day Afternoon, Being John Malkovich, or whatever else you want, but J.C.V.D. remains quite the original piece of work, and especially for titular, "international action star" Jean-Claude Van Damme. Relative unknown Mabrouk El Mechri, a team of writers, and Van Damme himself craft an incredibly ambitious, definitely uneven and flawed—but ultimately rich film. And if for nothing else, J.C.V.D. should be recognized for what it's really about: Jean-Claude Van Damme and his literally once-in-a-lifetime performance.

The film opens with a ridiculous, one-shot action sequence--ineffective as a parody but ironically remarkable for its action. In a great moment, Van Damme flops onto some of his victims, pretending to be one of them. The title, "J.C.V.D." appears above him, not spectacularly but subtly—a move which accurately sets the tone for the rest of the film. A lot of the humor in the film is either subtle or simply off, making for a disappointing lack of laughs. But where J.C.V.D. succeeds is in its drama—not its tension, per se, but in its down-to-earth old-school emotions, frankly put. Some scenes, from watching Van Damme's daughter testify to him speaking with his mother, are almost hard to sit through, but nothing is forced in our face, and we instead can sit back and watch as Van Damme struggles through a series of very real issues. "I want my fucking money!" he shouts at a bank teller in another tough scene, and well, after this film, he deserves it. The most powerful sequence is Van Damme's already renowned 6-minute monologue, which I won't spoil anything of, but the ending also warrants a lot of praise (I won't spoil this either, obviously).

As to the aesthetics, the seemingly God-awful color palette of the trailers is actually kind of homey, and it wore on me, at least. The non-linear, poor-man's-Tarantino storytelling is not quite perfected, but it works well enough, and one's able to follow it. The camerawork, like the film as a whole, is ambitious—sometimes tacky, but sometimes wondrous—again, I want to hit home the point that even when something doesn't work, it's rarely distracting, and I think the film is endlessly likeable in this respect (a well-done ending can't hurt either). There is a definite lag felt through parts of the film, but, like everything else, I'll forgive it, just like I can forgive Jean-Claude for doing muck like Derailed or Universal Soldier: The Return.

In the end, I wish I could make some epic statement like "J.C.V.D. is a fable of our times" a la The Dark Knight, but the truth is that's it not; it's a down-home tale told through a pseudo-fancy lenses. Van Damme has always (most of the time) tried to act his heart out, whether it be in early flicks like Kickboxer, Lionheart, and Double Impact, or in later entries like In Hell and Until Death, and now, playing himself of all people, he's nailed it. He doesn't need to perform a roundhouse kick or even yell an "AGGHHHHHH!" he just needs to be himself, which he does to perfection, making J.C.V.D. a success.


***1/2 out of ****

~ Patrick Fryberger