Movie Review: Safe House

'Safe House' has thrills despite dim ending (Our grade: C)

By Charles Ealy
Austin360.com | Austin American-Statesman

'Safe House" has some of the best action sequences in recent years. Cars careen and crash through the streets and shanty towns of South Africa. Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds throw muscular punches. And assassins open fire on crowded streets, causing panic and multiple injuries.

Yet after all the inventive, fanciful fury on screen, Swedish director Daniel Espinosa lets "Safe House" end with a cliché. Perhaps it's the fault of the script by David Guggenheim, whose only previous significant writing credit was the 2011 TV movie "Exit Strategy," which starred Ethan Hawke and involved CIA shenanigans.

That seems to be the most likely case, because Guggenheim goes back to the same well with "Safe House."

Washington stars as rogue CIA agent Tobin Frost, who turns up in South Africa after several years in hiding. He apparently wants to sell some secrets, but before he can make the deal, guns-a-blazing assassins start chasing him. And when it looks as if Frost is finally cornered, he makes a dash to a CIA safe house in Cape Town.

Reynolds plays the likable rookie agent Matt Weston, who usually spends his days bouncing balls off the wall of the deserted safe house that he oversees for the CIA. When Frost arrives, Weston gets more action than he ever expected. After watching uneasily as other agents arrive and start water-boarding Frost, Weston begins to realize that the assignment to protect Frost is going to be complicated.

Then assassins storm the safe house, and Weston has to plot an escape — with Frost in tow.

The resulting car chase is one of the movie's finest set pieces. But the thrills gradually diminish as more and more characters are introduced. Brendan Gleeson plays Weston's CIA supervisor. Vera Farmiga plays yet another CIA supervisor. And Sam Shepard plays the CIA director. All three are excellent actors, but the script provides little or no character development and reduces them to caricatures.

With his wholesome looks and easy smile, Reynolds quickly wins over the audience. And Washington scores points in gruff charm as well, his menace fading as he grudgingly starts to bond with his protector.

The only question becomes this: If Washington's Frost isn't the bad guy, then who is?

That's when the script of "Safe House" becomes tired and predictable — something that no amount of action can salvage.

cealy@statesman.com; 445-3931