On 9/11, I remember thinking how different things might have been if someone like Jackie Chan or Jet Li had been aboard United flight 93. Certainly those guys could’ve, would’ve kicked the crap out of the hijackers, and thus, saved the day. At least that’s how it works in the movies; real life doesn’t follow a script.
The same kind of thesis is at work in JCVD, a film that has no right to be as good as it is. With the former Timecop and Universal Soldier Jean-Claude Van Damme playing himself, it asks, “What would happen if Van Damme found himself in the middle of a bank robbery? A couple of kicks and it’d all be over, right?”
Director/co-writer Mabrouk El Mechri (The Cold Light of Day) answers, “Nope! You wish!”
In fact, after popping into the place to pick up a wire transfer, Van Damme is not only held captive as one of the hostages, but is assumed mistakenly by the authorities (stationed at a video store across the street) to be the mastermind. And “mastermind” is too kind of word for the true criminals; as with real life, they’re unpolished and unplanned. One of them looks eerily like John Cazale in Dog Day Afternoon, an obvious influence.
The highlight of the English/French co-production, partly improvised, isn’t concerned with the robbery at all. It’s the most meta moment of a meta work: a six-minute soliloquy of sorts, in which Van Damme speaks directly to us — in one unbroken shot — about his failures in life. He’s an internationally known movie star who appears to have it “all,” but “all” includes battles with drugs and ex-wives, the latest over custody of his daughter. It is stunning to see him deliver a honest-to-God performance, and he’s excellent.
Sounds grim, but JCVD is not without good humor, either. As an impressed captor relays to a hostage, “He’s the one who brought [John Woo] to the U.S. Without him, he’d still be filming pigeons in Hong Kong.” Without El Mechri, Van Damme still would be waiting for a chance to actually act. —Rod Lott