Discharged for using a banned substance to treat an injury, former Special Forces Sergeant James Harper (Chris Pine) needs a job.
He has a family to provide for, and the bills are piling up.
When an old friend Mike (Ben Foster) offers him a role as a contractor for a government contractor, James takes it.
And then his first mission goes wrong…
I watched this movie because of Chris Pine, and he was the thing I liked the most in it.
The Contractor has some worthy themes and some solid character beats - I just wish I liked it more.
A thriller about veterans who become private contractors in order to support their families, The Contractor reminded me a lot of Little Woods, in how it is about the crushing economic pressures of living in America. And like that movie, the only answer is shady business.
There is an aspect to the movie that feels closer to horror than action - our protagonists are treated like chess pieces that are moved from place to place with no real idea as to why.
They are also trapped between normal life and their experience of war and soldiering.
Pine’s performance is really fascinating - the character wants to be home yet in the domestic scenes, Pine feels disconnected, as though he has no idea what normal means.
The movie is far more interesting in this first half, as James tries to reconnect with his wife Brianne (Gillian Jacobs) and has flashbacks of his domineering father.
Once the mission starts, the movie starts to feel less singular.
It is not bad - the fight sequences are competently staged and rather visceral - but there is something missing.
It is as if the hollowness affecting the characters is affecting the movie and it does not know how to reconcile itself.
It almost feels like the themes and ideas that the movie wants to tackle - around treatment of veterans, and the destructiveness of American foreign policy - are too big for the story the film wants to tell.
I could not help a sense of frustration with the genre elements of the movie - they feel so familiar and uninspired that I checked out.
The movie is more effective when it is just a slowburn chronicle of a man’s breakdown.
The scene where Pine finally explodes is the best thing in the movie - a cathartic howl from the gut that is far more impactful than any of the action sequences. It recalls the frenzied intensity he brought to I Am The Night.
The movie has seeds of greatness, but ultimately The Contractor's presentation is a little too rote and dull for its worthy contents.
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