The opening scene in "Repo Men" shows one such repossession. Remy (Jude Law. Really.) waits in the lavish apartment of his soon-to-be victim (why this guy can't pay for his liver is never explained). When the man comes home, Remy tasers him, cuts him open (with less than surgical precision) and reclaims the artificial organ. He then leaves the man to die. Remy, fyi, is the hero of the story.
Remy works for "The Union", a nebulous organization that leases these artificial organs and charges a modest 19% APR on them. The company is headed by the smarmy Frank (Liev Schreiber, phoning in his "Glengarry Glen Ross" performance). Remy, naturally, is one of his best repo men. He and his longtime partner, Jake, seem to have no qualms about their chosen profession. "A job is a job", they say. Remy's wife is less enthused, but there are virtually no scenes to define that relationship anyway.
As you might expect, an accident puts Remy on the other side of the The Union. As you might further expect, he has to run from his former colleagues - in particular, Jake (Forest Whitaker, working as hard as Mr. Law to sell all this). Rather than run very far, though, Remy ends up in a thoroughly unconvincing love story subplot with Beth (Alice Braga from "I Am Legend"). If we cared about Remy, we might root for them. We don't, so we don't. And it all leads up to an ending that has to be seen to be believed. Suffice to say, even David Cronenberg would think, "no, that's too much".
"Repo Men" is directed with virtually no sense of humor by Miguel Sapochnik, a relative newcomer whose vision of the future seems to start and stop at "Give me the Blade Runner". The film is based on the novel "The Repossession Mambo" by Eric Garcia, who also co-wrote the film's script with Garrett Lerner. There's some debate over which came first: the novel or the "Genetic Opera". The latter's director, Darren Lynn Bousman, insists it was his. It's interesting that either camp should care to lay claim to a concept that's simply not that clever to begin with.
A friend of mine in the Construction business recently reminded me, you can't even repossess a kitchen cabinet once it's been installed, but in the future of "Repo Men", it makes sense to rip out a used organ and kill the delinquent owner. Of course, I'm trying to inject some logic into a film that requires your disbelief not only to be suspended but repossessed entirely.
| Movie title | Repo Men |
|---|---|
| Release year | 2010 |
| MPAA Rating | R |
| Our rating | |
| Summary | Grisly, humorless and over-long, this sci-fi thriller about the repossession of artificial organs isn't nearly as interesting, clever or original as it wants to be. |
