O Contrato

John Cusack must deal with hired killer Morgan Freeman in order to keep his son safe.

Take a great cast that clearly took the roles since they are atypical then undercut them with an unremarkable script and unimaginative direction and you have this forgettable snoozer. Bruce Beresford directed this? Did he show up? Outside of the cast there is no reason to see this film. If you must see this wait for cable, its not even worth a rental.

Not horrible, but you'll forget you saw it-I saw it early today and completely forgot I had watched it until I stumbled on a note to myself about it.

The widower teacher and baseball and basketball coach Ray Keene (John Cusack) lost his wife that died of cancer two years ago. When his teenage son Chris Keene (Jamie Anderson) is caught by the police smoking pot, Ray invites him to hike and camp in the woods to increase their bonds. Meanwhile, the mercenary assassin Frank Cordell (Morgan Freeman) is arrested by FBI after a car accident in the middle of a contract to kill an important target. While Frank is traveling on the road escorted by three FBI agents, his men try to rescue him, but his car falls into a river and is carried by the drift. Ray helps the wounded agent and the cuffed Frank to leave the river, and feels responsible to deliver Frank to justice. The former policeman and stubborn Ray does not listen to Frank's proposal to leave him alone and travel through the woods with Chris, trying to find a safe place. But the men of the Frank and an undercover agent in the team are chasing the group with different lethal intentions.

"The Contract" is a shallow and flawed thriller that has the intention of being dramatic and serious, but actually is laughable. The silly plot is full of coincidences and stupid actions taken by most of the characters. For example, in the beginning, the FBI agent leaves the car to help the truck driver on the road; the attitude of the crew of the helicopter is simply ridiculous when they land, specially the pilot; the way a suburban coach defeats trained mercenaries is shameful; and the coincidences when the bad guys shoot and miss the target are awful; the hiker Sandra loses her boyfriend and never grieves; and the corny romance of Sandra and Ray, and the incredible sentimental attitude of Frank Cordell in the end make this film a great deception. The motives why the reclusive billionaire apparently could not criticize the stem cell research program in a democratic and free country are never clarified, only tagged as "an obstacle to the progress". Is this a reason to kill and important man? My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Contrato" ("The Contract")

Ray Keene is a former policeman who is struggling to build his relationship with his young son. His plan to bond over a camping trip in the woods goes sour though when they come across a hit-man (Cordell) in the middle of escaping Government custody. Keene holds Cordell at gunpoint but without a mobile phone signal they begin to trek towards civilisation. However with Cordell's men hot on their heels, Ray becomes increasingly desperate as he tries to get to the protection of the authorities.

I saw this film on an overnight bus crossing Argentina. I mention this not as name dropping but to admit that the sound was very low as must passengers were sleeping and relying on headphones or the Spanish subtitles. Without headphones or a working Spanish, I prepared to strain my ears and also use the subtitles the best I could. I needn't have worried because I could have followed this if the sound was on mute and the DVD was playing all the scenes on random shuffle. The plot is simple perhaps but it did offer a sort of moral ambiguity that was interesting to me at first. With two strong actors in the leads I expected the verbal fireworks to be more interesting than the action. In a way I was correct but this is not to say that the script was good – just that the action was poor. The moral complexity of good and bad is skirted on but is ultimately dumped in a ending that is nothing more than insultingly lazy writing.

Fortunately anyone getting to the end will not be surprised by this as it is pretty much what the previous hour or so had been like. The narrative is totally unconvincing and offers little to make up for it. The tension that could have covered the plot holes is absent and the action is mostly just dumb. Writers Katz and Darrouzet deserve much of the credit for this because really nobody is given much to work with. Director Beresford does the basics with little conviction but I did feel sorry for the cast. Freeman and Cusack both deserved much better than this nonsense. Freeman I assume was attracted by the chance to play a baddie and it is a shame then the script doesn't really let him do this with any effort. Cusack does what is asked of him but nothing more. The support cast are average at best in keeping with their cardboard characters.

Overall then a roundly poor film that offers nothing of interest and wastes the talents of the two actors in the lead. If I hadn't been a captive audience I would have struggled to make it past the 30 minute mark.

This film is about the chase between cops, assassin's associates, assassin and an ex-cop.

The plot is very simple. Run, run and run. Apart from the constant displacement, there is really not much more to the film. As a result, there is no room to develop the characters. The dialog is weak. The only line that had some depth was when Chris exclaimed that he never thought his father listened to him.

The suspense looks too artificial. Why must they climb down the cliff in pouring rain? Is there really no alternative route? The editing was not tight enough to allow the suspense to sustain. Female nudity is put into the film in such a way that seems totally out of place and unnecessary.

In the end, Morgan Freeman's and John Cusack's characters developed respect and sympathy for each other. This could have been portrayed in more detail.

The only redeeming feature is the beautiful scenery. The valleys and waterfalls are breathtaking.

The Contract presents itself as an engaging action thriller with lots of twists. Including the always enjoyable performances of John Cusack and Morgen Freeman one should be in for a great ride. But after several moments into this film it becomes clear why the script has been lying on a dusty shelf somewhere for so long, waiting for top actors to get involved.

Even with the star involvement, the movie just fails to surpass its weak plot and tired premise. Ex-cop Ray, (Cusack) estranged father, and his son are on a hike to better their relationship when they stumble upon a fatally injured policeman and his prisoner, the hit-man Carden (Freeman). In stead of just letting Carden walk as Carden suggests, Ray, for no apparent reason, decides to turn him over to the police at the risk of his own life and that of his son. After this the chase through the woods for Carden by both the police and Carden's accomplices begins. With people running through bushes, occasional gunfire and certain bad weather.

Although Freeman and Cusack give away ample performances, the dialog seems to be that of some average TV-series. The villains and the characters of the police fare even worse. The movie just doesn't pick up any speed as it steers clear from any interesting action or build up of suspense. And especially the lack of motive for Ray to keep going with his plan to turn Carden in gets annoying after a while and this doesn't work very well in terms of sympathy for his hero-character. It is obvious that Catz wanted to write a story in which the bad guy develops sympathy for his capturer and maybe the other way around as well. But the cheesy, almost campy way this is attempted and the high number of scenes that just don't make any sense, stand in the way of its success.

Like the former reviewer pointed out, the movie is crammed with clichés and is lacking any originality. There are no mentionable plot-twists to keep the film interesting and the hackneyed screenplay is often accidentally comical.

I wouldn't even recommend getting the DVD. Just wait till it's the movie of the week and then see something else in stead.