Cleaner

Cleaner needs more meat on its action thriller bones.

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Scott's Self-Indulgent Movie Podcast · Episode 967: Cleaner

You've probably watched a Martin Campbell movie, even if you don't know him by name. Especially if you grew up in the mid to late nineties and enjoyed action movies, because Campbell is the fella who directed Goldeneye, The Mask of Zorro, Casino Royale and a number of alright action thrillers like The Foreigner and Edge of Darkness. A go-to example of a "director for hire" vs. an auteur, who also happens to be very good at staging, filming and producing action flicks. And after years of sporadic work, Campbell is seemingly putting out one R-rated action movie a year, and this year's is a Die Hard in everything but name, Cleaner.

The Setup

Daisy Ridley plays Joey Locke, a window washer who's having a rough day after her brother with severe autism has been kicked out of another group home, which led to her almost being fired. But her day's about to go from bad to worse as the building she's cleaning is overrun by environmental activists with murder on their mind. With Joey's brother is trapped inside and Joey herself trapped outside.

This movie is...fine. It's more than a few shades from great, but it goes down smooth and proves that Ridley has the charisma to be an action hero beyond Star Wars. So what does it get right and where can it improve? Let's dive in pro and con style.

Pro: Great Action...Con: When There's Action

The biggest issue with The Cleaner is that it has an action movie setup and not that much action. My guess is that this is a budget limitation, but when minute 40 rolls around and you haven't had anything besides executions happen, I wouldn't blame you if you're itching for combat.

But the action that is there is great. Campbell has always had a knack for filming practical action partially because he enjoys mixed martial arts choreography, so Ridley trading blows and grappling her opponents to the ground looks and feels intense and awesome, but also because he knows how to punctuate these beats. There's a tendency in action movies to let your hero tear through people without giving each goon a send-off or finishing blow. But when the goons in question number about half a dozen total, each one needs a proper send-off so it feels like there's always a pause before Ridley or her allies gets to deliver a solid killing blow.

Campbell also makes great use of the environments, so if we're on a rail he has people jump, grapple or go over a rail or use something like a heating pipe as a weapon mid-skirmish.

I just wish there was more of it. Usually when an action movie is 90 minutes it's because we're going to spend a lot less time on the setup, but instead we get almost an entire Die Hard length setup before speed running and skipping over a lot of the rest.

Pro: Glimmers of Solid Character Work Con: When It's There (Noticing A Theme Yet?)

One of the underrated elements of action movies are those quiet moments where you learn a character's backstory. And because the comparison is right there, we can look at Die Hard again. Before he's even in the Nakatomi Building, we know that John McClane is a NYC cop visiting his wife. We know things are on the rocks. And we know that he doesn't vibe with LA culture or his wife's business. So when Hans Gruber and company show up, it's easy for the audience to imagine that he'll be capable of doing something.

Whereas the Cleaner introduces Joey's affection for climbing in the prologue...and kinda leaves out the fact that she was trained by special forces before she got kicked out. Which might be important for saving her brother and the other hostages, and only comes up when she gets in touch with the police officer in charge on the ground. Likewise, we don't know/learn too much about Joey and her brother's history, which might be very important for how they will or won't be able to co-operate during this experience.

It just feels rushed and like there's a bunch of details left on the cutting room floor in deleted scenes.

Pro: Environmental Activists with A Point Con: Ah Shit They Got Overrun By "Humanity is the Virus" People

I got really really cagey when I first saw that our "terrorists" were an environmentalist group led by Clive Owen. Like oh jeez, here we go again. Making people trying to bring the powerful to account the bad guys again. But thankfully, it appears that the group has no intent to harm/kill anyone. They want confessions. They want people to account publicly. And then they will leave without leaving any bodies behind. Except why does that guy in the back look like he's got a murderous glint in his eye?

Surprising no one, because how else do you have real conflict in the this movie, this group's noble intensions are overrun by a much more militant group that wants to carry out murders. Ok...maybe an argument you could make there. And humanity is a virus...goddammit.

I always think this villain motivation is very weak. Because it's an edgelord mindset that really needs some kind of external motivation to break through. And anyone who's semi-smart would realize that humanity was capable of living in harmony with nature. Unless there's more personal experience or motivation, this "kill the human virus" mentality is never that scary because the people in question never have a plan that makes sense for that goal. 

I get that the movie needs a murderous outlook for its villains, but this feels like lazy writing.

The Verdict: The Bones of A Great Action Movie...That's In Too Much of a Rush

The biggest problem with Cleaner isn't that it's poorly made or acted. It's that it's in too much of a hurry to let its best elements breathe. If you added about 15-20 minutes of additional action and exposition and you'd have a great Die Hard riff. As it is, you have an enjoyable and janky action thriller. 5/10