Gemini Man (2019)

rating: ****

the story: A hitman ends up fighting a younger version of himself.

review: Here's one of those movies whose reception has just baffled me, for any number of reasons.  I get that Will Smith hasn't been popular in about a decade, but for me, he's still an undeniable talent, and I love that he's getting back into the spotlight.  I also get that Ang Lee somehow lost his critical credibility (I still have no idea how), but to continue treating him as if he's just another filmmaker is beyond idiotic.  And for Smith and Lee to make a movie together and everyone still just sees no worth in their efforts...

Listen, I get it.  You see a movie like this and assume it's just a gimmick: Will Smith battles himself.  It's just another of those movies capitalizing on special effects.  But there's beyond simplifying it.  There's a lot to love, even if you're not as enamored of Smith (and Lee) as I am.

Take Mary Elizabeth Winstead, for instance.  When I watched the movie in theaters, I was initially baffled.  Is that Cobie Smulders? Wait, it isn't?  Oh, it's Winstead!  The last time I caught her was in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, which I took as the geek version of (500) Days of Summer (which was a welcome interpretation).  I expected that she'd go on to have a notable, visible career.  So there I was, a decade later, not recognizing her, thinking she was someone else, and suddenly remembering how much I liked her.  Her character in Gemini Man is pretty much exactly Smulders' MCU character, but given actual space to breathe (which in a half dozen appearances Smulders never got, which was why she had to take the act on the road in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, and then just got to be awesome in Stumptown).

Then there's Clive Owen.  Actually, this whole movie features people inexplicably unappreciated by today's audiences.  Owen achieved immortality at least once, with Children of Men, but then he drifted into obscurity, and has begun resurfacing in recent years, although you'd hardly know it, because no one cares anymore.  This older Clive Owen is no longer the good guy leading man, suave and self-confident, but the bad guy, and yet he's still magnetic.  Of course. 

Smith is great, as he always is, and watching his current self opposite a version of his younger self (basically just before his career exploded) is a distinct treat.  The motorcycle stunts are a selling point all their own. 

But the best thing about Gemini Man is the unexpected point of the story: Lee is actually arguing that suffering is a good thing.  He believes that soldiers should feel pain.  This is different from not giving them treatment.  Smith ends up far better when he allows himself to embrace a personal life.  (In the mix is Benedict Wong in another standout supporting role, after his MCU appearances.)  The younger Smith is supposed to be one of those perfect killing machines who don't question anything.  In other forms this means robots.  But as we've repeatedly been told (even in Will Smith movies), robots are going to be people, too.  Eventually they'll want exactly what we want.

Even when we don't realize we need it.  We need our pain.  Sucks to have it, but it's an essential part of living.  Pain, regret, loss, all of it.  It helps remind us that there's so much more to life, things that will make us feel those things. 

Movies, especially blockbuster action movies, aren't supposed to help us worry about such things, yet Smith's movies have consistently, as his career has progressed, linger on them.  Lee's movies have sought the transcendent, universal messages that went far beyond his origins, the kinds of movies critics find easy to enjoy, and continually reward, but so often fall far of the mark that more ambitious movies attempt.  Such as, yes, Gemini Man.