“People don’t want the truth anymore, Matt. It’s messy, keeps people up at night.”

Action thrillers are a dime a dozen these days: plentiful, yet rarely rising above mediocrity. Does Safe House stand out from the crowd? Or is it just another tedious, garden-variety excuse to blow things up?

Young CIA agent Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) is a house keeper. A safe house keeper, to be exact. And the job couldn’t be more uninteresting. He’s been at it for over 12 months, desperately hoping to get transferred to a more exciting location than Cape Town, South Africa. “How am I supposed to get more experience by staring at four walls all day?” He dutifully answers the phone, checks e-mail, and keeps the place tidy, waiting for something to interrupt the usual routine.

Then something does.

Agents drag in Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington): an ex-CIA operative who dropped off the grid 9 years earlier and began selling secrets to the highest bidder. Interrogation begins, only to be halted by a disturbance outside. Armed men break into the safe house and a bloody firefight ensues. The intruders gun down everyone – everyone except Weston, who beats a hasty retreat with Frost in tow. Now pursued across South Africa, Weston must escort his dangerous charge to a more secure location… before both of them get killed.

Safe House (rated R for strong violence throughout and some language) is director Daniel Espinosa’s English-language debut. And to answer the question posed at the beginning of this review… yes, it does stand apart. Bolstered by terrific performances, pulse-pounding action, and skillful direction, this film is brainier, brawnier, and bolder than your typical action-thriller. In the words of Kenneth Turan:

Espinosa has given Safe House an unmistakably stylish and unsettling tone, characterized by probing camera work, quick and edgy cutting and a fine ability to keep audiences off-balance and wondering when they’ll get a chance to catch their next breath.

Lack of originality has been the biggest complaint leveled at it thus far and there’s a certain amount of truth to it: the film doesn’t break any new ground and the script isn’t anything special. Familiar as the story may be, however, Espinosa executes it with style and intelligence. Like last year’s Super 8, Safe House succeeds through spectacular filmmaking rather than originality.

Denzel Washington gives a finely-tuned performance as Tobin Frost: a man who would just as soon snap your neck as shake your hand. Playing opposite him is the ever-watchable Ryan Reynolds, who fills the role of Matt Weston exceedingly well. The tension between these two characters – the jaded, morally-corrupt veteran and the young, idealistic rookie – is easily one of the most appealing aspects of the film.

The action is gritty and impressive, comprised of jarring gunfights, brutal mano-a-mano combat, and tense chases. Yet even here the movie retains a surprisingly firm grip on reality. Violence doesn’t get the glossy treatment it does in most action-thrillers. Neither do the participants. Fights are messy, hard-hitting affairs, and the characters aren’t above getting hurt. They get scared, they make stupid choices: they’re human.

In an age of geeky wimps and anti-heroes, Matt Weston is a refreshingly honorable character. He’s not flawless, of course, but his courage and rugged determination make him someone audiences can genuinely root for. In a world of lies, he never loses sight of the value of truth. He protects it. He values it. And he’s unwilling to compromise it for personal gratification and ease.

Men like Tobin Frost view truth as optional: a thing to be discarded the moment it becomes inconvenient. The bad guys here aren’t psychotic super-villains bent on destroying the world – they’re ordinary people, just like you and me. They’ve made so many compromises that their ethics have become situational, their morality relativistic. For them, the clear line between right and wrong isn’t so clear anymore. “You tell a hundred lies a day,” says Tobin, “and it begins to sound like the truth.”

~ Corey P.