Media Maven: “Wanted” Movie Review

“Wanted”
Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Kristen Hager

“Wanted” is a slick, multifaceted, modern-day story about a slacker who live his life in utter complacency only to discover that the power of his destiny has been inside him all along. In this case it is the story and its dramatic telling that fascinates movie goers looking for something unconventional.

Protagonist Wesley Allan Gibson (James McAvoy) lacks participation in life, which erodes every facet of his life. His boss belittles him daily. His live-in girlfriend sleeps with his best friend. And his existence seems only to serve as a place keeper in the cubicle world of business. While life passes him by, the audience sees an assassination of Wesley’s father, who has been absent since Wesley’s birth. Wes is unaware of his relationship to the man who has been killed. Everything changes when Wes encounters Fox (Angeline Jolie), who is a member of a longstanding society known as “The Fraternity” whose mission is to carry out the death orders of FATE.

Both futuristic in its manufacturing of FATE as a weaving machine and grounded in the present with ordinary people looking like you and me, this movie at once elicits our attention with its dark renderings of a netherworld existing just beneath the surface of reality.

 Jolie steals the film with her beauty and incandescent performance as a competent assassin and member of the secret Fraternity. Her character helps guide the unsuspecting Wesley into this world of intrigue and deception. James McAvoy as our unlikely hero does a convincing job as a slacker turned trained assassin. But it is Morgan Freeman’s performance that may surprise and entertain all who see “Wanted.”

For the sleek sophistication alone, “Wanted” is a diversion from the same old same old.

Chic Stars: Four Chic Stars
 
Jan’s Movie Rating System:

5 – Top notch entertainment
4 – Compelling, Heartwarming, Thrilling, Comical
3 – The a) story b) actors c) special effects saved/made this movie.
2 – If you are bored, watch it; or wait for DVD
1 – Don’t bother. Too morose, too violent, too blasé, an enigma.