Delayed Reaction: Charlie Countryman

Premise: A young man impulsively travels to Bucharest after the death of his mother and immediately runs into trouble.

 

Here's the danger of going by the cast as a motivation to see a movie. You don't actually know how much anyone is used or how they are used. You only know to look out for familiar faces. I picked Charlie Countryman because of a really impressive list of names in the cast. And that was misleading. Aubrey Plaza and Vanessa Kirby have blink-and-you'll-miss-them roles. Especially Plaza who must've had a larger part that was cut down to nearly nothing. Vincent D'Onofrio only shows up shortly. Melissa Leo shows up at least a couple times. The cast is still pretty good though, just not stacked. This came out at the height of Shia LaBeouf as performance art. Evan Rachel Wood gets a fun accent, which I'm sure she enjoyed. This was right before Mads Mikkelsen got more than European heavy roles. I love Rupert Grint's oddball post-Harry Potter career. He hasn't made anything great, but it's the filmography of a guy who really doesn't give a fuck about what other people think. The guy is just having fun, in random bit roles if he wants.

 

This movie is both thin and a lot. It's over-directed. I didn't need to look up that this is Fredrik Bond's feature directorial debut because that fact is all over the movie with the insistence on making the director's presence known. There's a type of debut director that seems to be constantly asking, "what would look cool?" Charlie Countryman is a lot of that. Cool camera techniques. Cool locations. Cool sequences. And I'm often left wondering, "OK, but why?" I lost track of what was going on at one point and never felt the need to catch back up. I know there was some mix of threats posed by Nigel (Mikkelsen) and Darko (Til Schweiger). No one seemed to want Charlie (LaBeouf) and Gabi (Evan Rachel Wood) to end up together. It's the sort of movie where plot just happens to the main character repeatedly. I mean, it's set off by Charlie randomly deciding to go to Bucharest and the man sitting next to him dying. To put it in Stranger Than Fiction terms, that's the wrecking ball coming through Harold's wall.

 

Still, I did sort of like bits of the movie. Shia LeBeouf is engaging to watch. It's a shame that his childhood did such a number on him, because if that charisma and talent could've been tied to a more normal childhood, he probably really would be a bonafide movie star now. Pairing him with Wood is smart, because both like being provocateurs. With a filmmaker who could more clearly express her/his vision, they'd be great in something genuinely unique. And yes, I am aware that aspects of this movie were cut in ways that were out of the director's control. Some moments of this movie are fun. I enjoyed getting caught up in the Sundance messiness of it all. The movie takes a lot of big swings with magical realism and soundtrack choices that don't always work. I appreciate the ambition even though I don't care for the final product.

 

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend