Directed By David Mackenzie

Starring – Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James, Sam Worthington

The Plot – London undergoes a citywide evacuation when an unexploded World War II bomb is unearthed at a busy construction site. Amid the escalating tension and chaos, a daring criminal operation is set in motion, and one that uses the evacuation as a cover for a meticulously planned bank heist. As authorities race against time to contain the crisis, alliances blur and moral boundaries are crossed.

Rated R for adult language throughout and violence

FUZE | In UK Cinemas April 3 | Starring Theo James, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Gugu Mbatha-Raw

POSITIVES

If effectively executed, tautly constructed high-concept thrillers have the capability to entertain you enthrallingly with the necessary elevating stakes and shifting dynamics required to recontextualize matters every twenty minutes or so, and while Fuze eventually crashes off of the rails with overzealous storytelling that eventually gets away from its grasp during the hotly contested climax, for at least the first two acts, it’s every bit the riveting roller-coaster that was advertised, marking another engrossingly eccentric direction from David Mackenzie, even if it pales in comparison to some of his best projects. From the very opening shot, Mackenzie wastes little time establishing primary focus to the setting’s construction site as a source of necessary tension for the developing conflict, crafted not only with a variety of character perspectives and situational vantages to pursue the pressure of the many grinding axels within the elaborateness of this concept, but also with an unforeseen element of ambiguity to its set-up, that drives speculation in the depths of amoral definition amongst its characters, helping to attain an element of uncertainty to what were interpreting in real-time, even as the familiarities of the power dynamics might prematurely force audiences seeking answers to unfairly cement morality to those, based entirely on their objectives. For the first hour of the movie, Mackenzie’s urgency in the narrative is attained wonderfully by the great finesse exercised in balancing the overlap of perspectives and locations involved in the undertow of tragedy, made effortless from Matt Meyer’s frenetic editing techniques, which increase with deviating anxiousness the deeper the clock ticks towards inevitability, as well as Tony Doogan’s naggingly persistent score, which underline the visual developments with such immediacy in their instrumentals, affording balance for Mackenzie to utilize the tension and even claustrophobia of the value to such vulnerable settings. This would be impactful enough with just a discovered bomb unearthing an element of unpredictability in attempting to defuse something so erroneously outdated by militarized procedure, but it’s doubled down upon dramatically by this out-of-the-way and obscured heist subplot whose characters revel in the advantageous benefit of an evacuated city free from watchful eyes, and considering most heist movies craft a diversion among those whom the thieves wish to rob, rather than away from the enacted spectrum, the decision to balance these arcs respectively in the consistency of Ben Hopkins script is vital towards fighting back against the unavoidably repetitious consistency of its linearly structure, with just enough cause and effect in the sequencing of events to garner insightful knowledge, without his writing requiring heavy handed exposition or clunky plot mechanics to unnecessarily hold the hand of the audience. Beyond elevating direction and a fascinating concept, the film is also aided by the heavy lifting of such a top tier ensemble, whom despite the lack of corresponding characterization to make their jobs easier, override forgettability with enough energy and resilience to roll with the punches of an engagement that tests them emotionally and physically, particularly that of Theo James, who makes the most of a character design that intentionally humbles his expressive talents with moral ambiguity. Between this and James’ turn last year in The Monkey, he’s really showing impressive range and adaptability among genre classifying, here with more resilient grit and prominent presence among the stacked collection of actors, with James dialing up the tension while not giving away too much about the complexity of his character. The closest to him is probably that of Sam Worthington, whose unrelenting intensity and slimy seediness in front of the lens, constantly keeps you on edge with the incessant need to keep an eye on his wild card of a character, adding another noteworthy antagonistic turn for Sam, whose previous film, Relay (Also directed by Mackenzie), also reveled in the ulterior motives of a character with an abundance of withheld secrets.

NEGATIVES

Despite the appeal of so many cunningly creative components driving the movie’s chaotic outline, Hopkins makes the absolute fatal mistake of incapably stitching together a need to care about any of it, on account of ambiguous details about the heist, and a lack of pursuit with the paper-thin characterization, that has these characters feeling at a grave distance towards connecting with the audience. While the former’s intention becomes more and more obvious the longer the film persists, with it enacting a series of stacked twists to deviate upon audience expectations, the latter outlines a bigger problem in which seemingly Hopkins nor anyone else involved behind the project fully understood who the established protagonist was supposed to be, an unfortunate aspect made all the more glaringly evident once motivations are eventually realized, and everyone just kind of conforming to this uncompelling shade of grey that makes each of them feel so interchangeably bland with one another. If the script took more time during the opening act to give us even a single scene away from the inevitable mayhem that transpires, then it could’ve provided visual food for thought as to why any of them feel so valuable to the integrity and irreplaceability of the product, but unfortunately as it stands, the movie wastes away credible actors on account of keeping so much about its creativity close to the chest, and the result is this complete lack of moral compass that failed to keep me invested throughout a story with no shortage of urgency to the dimensions of its narrative. Beyond this, the third act is a downright mess in the clumsy and clunky nature of its execution, featuring an overabundance of twists that not only convolute the synergy of the storytelling, but also leave plenty more unanswered questions and motivations the longer that its periodic exposition dumps decide to take ample time away from what’s transpiring at the forefront of the engagement. Most of them are entirely predictable, after following a similarly blazed trail from genre predecessors before it, but even despite its predictability, it’s the way that these revelations are unearthed that require a total suspension of disbelief, such as one character literally leaving a notebook behind for others to read, giving away the full magnitude of their plan in ways that easily leave them open to be caught if even one unpredictable element along the way didn’t go the way that they initially drew them up. If this doesn’t sacrifice such enough meaningful momentum from the experience, the film makes the awkwardly bewildering structural decision to supplant a highly crucial flashback tying the story’s motivational events that put this story to motion, at the very end of the experience, seemingly as a means of feeling like the production had no idea where to shoehorn it. The scene in question is strangely surreal enough for ending the movie on a trivially flat mark that inevitably won’t send audiences home fully satisfied, but beyond that evoking a post-movie screen text involving weirdly joking ‘Where are they now’ character summaries that don’t correspond at all with the film’s previously established tone before it. Perhaps if Mackenzie’s direction called for more personality throughout the proceedings than we’re regretfully given, then this bewildering decision would’ve made more sense in the grander scheme of things, but as it stands it’s compromising closure that detracted significantly on my final grade, wasting away so much meticulous articulation and artistic restraint from the movie’s far superior first two acts.

OVERALL
Fuze is an initially taut and tumultuously constructed chaotic thriller that implodes under a compromisingly confusing climax, featuring an abundance of convoluted twists and tonal shifts that detonates disastrous results for something so promising. While David Mackenzie’s direction certainly breeds effortless tension and immediacy to a conflict peddled by panic, the thinly written characters never give audiences much reason or morality to care about those involved, bombing with the lackluster impact of a firework, rather than something earth-shattering

My Grade: 5.9 or D+